...how do you pronounce that? And what is the etymology? The only obvious source I can see is “evil”, which is Germanic rather than Latinate.
(A carping complaint, to be sure, but even if I fold on this one, I still maintain that many mismatched combinations—particularly “ombudsperson”—are abominations unto good taste.)
From my two years of studying Latin I know that evitandum is second declension neuter gender, being a gerund. In Latin the word can also be an adjective, in which case it is second declension and inflected for all genders.
...how do you pronounce that? And what is the etymology? The only obvious source I can see is “evil”, which is Germanic rather than Latinate.
(A carping complaint, to be sure, but even if I fold on this one, I still maintain that many mismatched combinations—particularly “ombudsperson”—are abominations unto good taste.)
What Alicorn said. “Evitare” is Latin for “to avoid”; if “X-are” is a Latin verb meaning “to Y”, then an “X-andum” is a “thing to be Y-ed”.
“Avoidum” (pl. “avoida”) could be an alternative — but “evitandum”, having more syllables, does sound better.
I never came across that word during my four years of studying latin. What declension is it?
From my two years of studying Latin I know that evitandum is second declension neuter gender, being a gerund. In Latin the word can also be an adjective, in which case it is second declension and inflected for all genders.
Cf. the English word “inevitable” = unavoidable.
err, I meant ‘Avoidum’
Ok, that’s just a made-up mish-mash of English and Latin.
From “evitable”, which is the opposite of “inevitable”—so it means “thing to be avoided”.
All is clear! Approved!
(Would have edited in, but no natural way to do so and preserve thread of conversation.)
(Edit: Have edited into the parenthetical.)