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#125853 03/22/2004 4:50 PM
Joined: Jan 2001
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wwh
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Carpal Tunnel
Carpal Tunnel
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Date: Tue Aug 29 00:26:15 EDT 2000
Subject: A.Word.A.Day--graduand
graduand (GRAJ-oo-and) noun
A student who is about to graduate or receive a degree.

[From Middle Latin graduandus, gerundive of graduare to graduate.]




#125854 03/22/2004 4:57 PM
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Pooh-Bah
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It's amazing what lengths of 'word inventiveness' people have gone to just so they can use one word instead of two or three.


#125855 03/23/2004 2:24 PM
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veteran
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It's a goodly place to point out that whereas English has a single -ing form (called present particple or gerund depending on its function, not its form), Latin has two forms: one, a present particple (a verbal adjective), ending in -Vns (e.g., amans), and two, a gerund or a gerundive (both verbal nouns), ending in -Vnd- (amandi, g.s.). Gerundives are also called future passive particples. While present particples are declined in all 5 cases, gerunds lack a nominative form. Here's a famous example of a gerundive: Carthago delenda est (Carthage must be destroyed / C. is to be destroyed). Of a gerundive: aqua utilis bibendo (water good for drinking) from Pliny.



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