Friday 21 April 2017

Gerunds and Gerundives in the Wild

Aside from the state motto of New Mexico, crescit eundo, there is the motto of Millfield School in Somerset: molire molendo '(Loosely translated as "to succeed by grinding")'. 'Loosely', of course, because since molior is a deponent verb, molire is a second-person singular indicative or, better for this context, an imperative. The infinitive, as implied by the loose translation, is moliri.

As for the gerundive, and real Latin, there is the formula found in Pompeian electoral dipinti:

aed(ilem/iles) [or duovirum] v(iis) a(edibus) sacr(is) p(ublicis) procurandis oro vos faciatis.
See, for examples, I 1. nos. 11 and 18 in R. Wallace's An Introduction to Wall Inscriptions from Pompeii and Herculaneum (Wauconda, Illinois: Bolchazy-Carducci, 2005).

1 comment:

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