13
votes
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Can a gerund introduce a subordinate clause?
It has been my experience that gerunds can pretty freely introduce subordinate clauses.
For example, in Livy, Ab urbe condita 3.39.2, the ablative of the gerund introduces an indirect command (as in ...
- 19.1k
13
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"Miserando atque eligendo"
I read through Ron Conte's blog post and find it sloppy and unscholarly. He makes the (correct) point that Fr. Z's proposed translation sounds literal and stinted and, almost in the same words, asks ...
- 38.5k
12
votes
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Were there ever gerunds for posse and esse?
Scholastic Latin supplied at least some of the lacking forms. For instance, actus essendi is an important concept in Aquinas’ metaphysics.
Giordano Bruno employed the following formula: Modum essendi ...
- 6,219
11
votes
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When do I use the gerundive vs. participle forms of a verb in Latin?
I think that your question will become a lot clearer when you realize that the gerundive is a participle: specifically, it is the future passive participle.
This is thus not a question of choosing ...
- 38.5k
9
votes
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What forms are the verbs in "Omnibus rebus paratis, Caesar milites naves conscendere jussit"?
You were spot on with your parsing of iussit; it is, in fact, the third person singular perfect active indicative of iubeō, iubēre, iussī, iussum.
With regards to parātīs (the macrons should give a ...
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8
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"Miserando atque eligendo"
Fortunately, there is a straightforward answer. In medieval Latin, the ablative gerund often communicates manner. The result is not so different from a participle or even an adverb or adverbial phrase....
- 6,219
8
votes
"Miserando atque eligendo"
FWIW, Pope Francis spoke about this recently (in an article translated into English by five independent experts):
"I always felt my motto, Miserando atque Eligendo [By Having Mercy and by ...
- 16.4k
8
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"Miserando atque eligendo"
(I am posting my previous comment here in part because I hope this will help, in some small way, to get this site past the beta stage. However, I do not think my comments deserve a bounty.)
Fr. Z ...
- 716
8
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Nunc est bibendum: gerund or gerundive?
I strongly incline to the view that bibendum is a gerundive, not only because it is paired with an unambiguous gerundive, but also because the context demands some kind of obligation, a notion not ...
- 6,219
8
votes
Nunc est bibendum: gerund or gerundive?
This is a synchronic answer, pertaining only to classical Latin, as I believe the use of gerunds and gerundives was subject to some change praeclassically; what is more, they may have once been the ...
- 19.8k
7
votes
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Ethics of Spinoza: producendam
This kind of metonymy is very common in Latin.
For a simple example, vir mortuus is literally "a dead man" but can also mean "the death of a man".
This is somewhat similar to how ...
- 110k
7
votes
Accepted
Is 'praestandis' in this sentence a gerund (gerundium) or a gerundive (gerundivum)?
The gerund is only used in the singular, so for that reason alone praestandis has to be a gerundive.
The gerund is a verbal noun (and as a subject or object is replaced by the infinitive).
The ...
- 110k
7
votes
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Vocative Gerund
I've never seen the gerund used in the vocative, and a search for -ende in the Packhum corpus turned up nothing but imperatives. But I would be very surprised if such a form existed.
The gerund in ...
- 64.6k
7
votes
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When is there a U instead of an E in gerund(ive)?
Weiss writes that
"The u-forms are characteristic of legal and archaizing style, e.g. pecuniae repetundae (the recovery of extorted money), and are found in the isolated forms secundus 'following' ...
- 11.6k
7
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Can a gerund have a predicative complement?
Generally speaking, in Classical Latin the nominative case cannot be licensed within a gerundial structure. So one can say Puer tacitus manet but not *Puer cupidus [manendi tacitus] (cf. ok Puer ...
- 7,511
6
votes
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Short vowels in lucubrando
I don't know any reason why the first vowel of "lucubrando" would be short; I'd guess it might be an error.
However, I was able to find some references that describe final o as often being treated as ...
- 26.5k
6
votes
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Use of the gerund in the Vulgate bible
I think you've basically answered your own question. The literal translation you give is correct but is extremely unidiomatic English; the Douay-Rheims translation preserves the sense of the Latin but ...
- 30.6k
6
votes
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Can a gerund stand alone?
It is as grammatical as the English sentence "By ruling".
They are both fine, but clearly elliptic; the omitted words are clear enough, so that in the context of such an exchange the ...
- 110k
6
votes
Accepted
How does "vadis" mean "you go"?
The verb is vādō, vādere, not *vādō, vādāre. Hence the well-known imperative singular vāde.
- 64.6k
6
votes
What's this gerundive doing here?
It's a gerund, not a gerundive. Gerunds are verbal nouns, and you actually translated it as so: "[in/by] going."
Sicaniam repetit, dumque omnia lustrat eundo,
venit et ad Cyanen.
She ...
cmw♦
- 50.7k
5
votes
Is my rephrasing of this purpose clause correct?
Although the gerund can be used to express purpose, it's not allowed in this case because of the direct object Megaram. As stated in Allen and Greenough's Latin Grammar:
The accusative of the ...
- 10.7k
5
votes
Accepted
Can ‘per’ occur with accusative gerundium?
I made a corpus search for per near -ndum in Cicero and found no hits for per with an accusative gerund.
Without the restriction to Cicero there are too many hits for me to wade through now.
I don't ...
- 110k
5
votes
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Am I grasping this gerund correctly? and also the talem...qualem pair?
I think your translation is very good and you have taken no unnecessary liberties.
The only bit of information that is missing is the superlative.
One other small improvement could be made by ...
- 19.8k
5
votes
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Translation of the genitive gerund
It is quite common to see the word cupiditas or cupido and their derivatives together with the genitive gerund. Hence, most probably, cupiditas amplum modum sperandi should be understood as a single ...
- 10.1k
4
votes
"Miserando atque eligendo"
A lot of people have said this already, but please let me say it again, this time quoting E. C. Woodcock, "A New Latin Syntax", Paragraph 209:
A gerund in the instrumental ablative is sometimes ...
- 4,408
4
votes
Translation help, especially with "cum bello cupiendo"
Your “translation exercise” is a famous (I thought) fragment from Nepos’ “Hannibal” (from De exellentibus ducibus, 2.1): “Nam ut omittam Philippum, quem absens hostem reddidit Romanis, omnium iis ...
- 1,093
4
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When is there a U instead of an E in gerund(ive)?
To clarify a little more.
In Gramatica Latina (latin grammar) by Santiago Segura:
Participe of passive future:
It is also called verbal adjective in -NDUS and gerundive and is formed by adding to ...
- 248
4
votes
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Is "nulli nocendum" ambiguous?
Yes, it is ambiguous.
This is a very common situation in Latin:
Two different semantic roles are expressed with the same grammatical case — or two morphologically indistinct cases.
Here the person to ...
- 110k
4
votes
"desinat igitur gloriando etiam insectari dolores nostros."
Lewis & Short, while often obstinately unhelpful to people who just want to figure out the meaning of a word at a glance, usually has copious usage examples. In this case, you can see desino goes ...
- 8,638
4
votes
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Use of gerund with ablative of means or method
Yes, that is exactly right.
Nando or natando means "by swimming".
- 5,137
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