gerundive

American  

[juh-ruhn-div] / dʒəˈrʌn dɪv /

noun

1. (in Latin) a verbal adjective similar to the gerund in form and noting the obligation, necessity, or worthiness of the action to be done, as legendus in Liber legendus est, “The book is worth reading.”

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adjective

1. resembling a gerund.

gerundive British  

/ dʒɪˈrʌndɪv /

noun

1. (in Latin grammar) an adjective formed from a verb, expressing the desirability of the activity denoted by the verb

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adjective

1. of or relating to the gerund or gerundive

Other Word Forms

• gerundival
  adjective
• nongerundive
  adjective
• gerundively
  adverb
• nongerundively
  adverb

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Etymology

Origin of gerundive

First recorded in 1375–1425; late Middle English word from Late Latin word gerundīvus. See gerund, -ive

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

gerundive

Dink Stover, later to win fame at Yale, carried his whole Latin class by signalling with a pair of mobile ears whenever The Roman, their teacher, asked his favorite question, "Gerund or gerundive?"

From Time Magazine Archive

All editors, misled no doubt by 37, mispunctuate this passage, placing a comma before quorum instead of after: this destroys the gerundive quorum ... appellandorum, leaving the pentameter without a construction.

From The Last Poems of Ovid by Mark Bear Akrigg

The potency of right methods.—A teacher of Latin once used twenty minutes in a violent attempt to explain the difference between the gerund construction and the gerundive construction.

From The Vitalized School by Francis B. Pearson

NOTE.—This construction with the gerundive is not common till Livy.

From New Latin Grammar by Charles E. (Charles Edwin) Bennett

"Top of page, third word, Channing—gerund or gerundive?" said The Roman.

From The Varmint by Frederic Rodrigo Gruger

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