What is the translation of Dubitantum and its relation with Dubium?
Dubitandum comes from dubito, meaning to doubt or to hesitate. It is the neuter nominative/accusative singular of the gerundive–or perhaps the accusative of the gerund.
Gerundive -de eius amicitia dubitandum non est - you shouldn’t doubt his friendship
Gerund -orationem in amicos dubitandum egit - he made a speech against doubting friends.
Remember that the Romans were more apt to turn the latter gerund into a gerundive modifying the noun that was the object of the gerund: in amicos dubitandos, in other words.
Dubium, -i is a substantive (generally meaning “doubt”) derived from dubius, -a, -um, the adjective meaning “doubtful.” It is pretty common for an abstract noun to be derived not from the usual suffixes (-tio, -tudo, -tas) but rather from the neuter singular nominative of the word in question. I.e., verum, -i can mean “the truth,” rather as veritas, -tatis f can.
-David
Surely, if original post correct, dubitantum: from dubitans, present participle of dubito, genitive plural, not gerund/gerundive: “of those hesitating”.
That would be “dubitantium”
O, yes, I suppose it probably would be, unless in poetry. Sorry. Well we’ll have to guess whether this is (a) typo for dubitandum, (b) typo for dubitantium or (c) dubitantum and poetic. OP presumably knows, and he’s got every possible answer now.
Well, I don’t know if the correct is Dubitantum or Dubitandum. I found it in a proverb “Ubi Dubitantum, Ibi Libertas”. I thought the correct proverb should be “Ubi Dubium, Ibi Libertas”, but I was not sure what Dubitantum means. Now, with a great help by you, I can stand for Dubium.
Whoops! I’ll own up to a quick (mis)reading.
-david