gerund
(ˈdʒɛrʌnd, -ənd)
[ad. L. gerund-ium, app. f. gerundum = gerendum, gerund of gerĕre to carry on.]
A form of the Lat. vb. capable of being construed as a n., but retaining the regimen of the vb. Hence applied to forms functionally equivalent in other langs., e.g. to the Eng. verbal noun in -ing when used rather as a part of the vb. than as a n.
| 1513 Lilly Introd. Gram. (1549) B ij b, There be moreouer belongyng to the infinitiue mode of verbes certayn voyces called gerundes..whiche haue bothe the actyue and passiue significacion. 1591 Percivall Sp. Dict. C j b, There is only one Gerund ending in do. 1668 Wilkins Real Char. 446 Gerunds and Supines are unnecessary inflexions of Verbs, the notion of them being expressible by the Infinitive Mode, whose Cases they are. 1762 Lowth Eng. Gram. 111 The Participle with a Preposition before it, and still retaining its Government, answers to what is called in Latin the Gerund. 1826 Syd. Smith Wks. (1859) II. 100/1 He is driven to absolute despair by gerunds. 1872 Morris Hist. Outl. Eng. Accid. xiii. 179 We usually abridge sentences containing the verbal substantive, so that it looks like a gerund. |
b. Comb. (used derisively), as gerund-grinder, one who instructs in Latin grammar; a pedantic teacher; gerund-grinding, instruction in Latin grammar; pedantic instruction generally; gerund-grindery, a classical school; gerund-stone, the imaginary grindstone of a ‘gerund-grinder’.
| 1710 Fanatick Feast 6 The next was Cl―s, the walking Gerund-grinder, a noisie wrangling Sophist. 1762 Sterne Tr. Shandy V. xxxii, Here is the glass for pedagogues..gerund-grinders, and bear-leaders, to view themselves in. 1827 Hone Every-day Bk. II. 33 Gerund-grinding and parsing are usually prepared for at the last moment. 1831 Carlyle Sart. Res. (1858) 64 An inanimate, mechanical Gerund-grinder. 1864 Reader 1 Oct. 410/3 With less enthusiasm and tenderness, the author would probably have consented to wield his tawse and turn the ‘gerundstone’ in time-honoured style. 1882 Macm. Mag. XLV. 232 The man of theory will always continue to think and speak of the professed pedagogue as a ‘gerund-grinder’. 1887 Ch. Times 20 May, How can it be right for clergymen to earn hundreds or even thousands a year, say, by gerund-grinding or by managing a great gerund-grindry? |