Thursday 24 September 2015

Gerundives and gerunds in the wild...

The same inscription that mentions the suovetaurilia (CIL VI 2099 II 5 and 13-14) also features three gerundives as theonyms: Adolenda 'a goddess presiding over the burning of trees struck by lightning', Commolenda 'a goddess presiding over the grinding or pounding of ritually burnt objects', and Deferunda '(app.) the personification of the ritual taking down of an object'. Only the last of these has a reference to the pagina and line in OLD s.v.


That inscription also refers to coinquenda (also in VI 2065): '[dub.] (app.) To cut back or prune'. Lewis and Short have an entry for the gerundive.

As for the gerund, the state motto of New Mexico is crescit eundo 'It grows as it goes'.

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