Meme propagation
Dec. 9th, 2006 10:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
womzillaThe blogger Acephalous is spreading a meme to study the propagation speed of memes. The blogger would appreciate it if you would read the linked page and then link to it in your own blog/journal/whatnot.
"Propaganda" is an example of the gerundive, a verb form which has a peculiar and useful sense in Latin. It's a variation of the future tense marked by the -ndum, -nda ending, and it indicates a sense of necessity. Thus, "memorandum" is "something that must be remembered"; "agenda" (from agere) is "things that have to be done". Lawyers and others who argue professionally use the word "arguendo", meaning "thing that has to be argued", or, more usefully, "let us grant this for the purposes of this argument".
And thus, "propaganda" can be seen as "things that have to be propagated".
See, now you've learned something, unless you didn't.
"Propaganda" is an example of the gerundive, a verb form which has a peculiar and useful sense in Latin. It's a variation of the future tense marked by the -ndum, -nda ending, and it indicates a sense of necessity. Thus, "memorandum" is "something that must be remembered"; "agenda" (from agere) is "things that have to be done". Lawyers and others who argue professionally use the word "arguendo", meaning "thing that has to be argued", or, more usefully, "let us grant this for the purposes of this argument".
And thus, "propaganda" can be seen as "things that have to be propagated".
See, now you've learned something, unless you didn't.
