174 
THE INFINITIVE WITH NOUNS. 
neod, need, necessity: 
/Elf. Horn. II. 372 m2 : Ic bohte senne tun, and me is neod to farenne and 
Sone geseon (sic!) [Cf. L. 14.18: Ic bohte senne tun, ic hsebbe neode bset ic 
fare and hine geseo = Viliam emi, et necesse habeo exire, et videre illam.] 
Napier's Ad. to Th. 102.35 b4 : me is neod to farenne and tSone sceawian 
(sic!). 
II. THE INFINITIVE INFLECTED. 
The inflected infinitive modifies a large number of nouns. As is shown by 
the Latin originals, this infinitive often stands in the relation of a genitive 
modifier of the noun, and translates a Latin gerund or gerundive in the geni¬ 
tive (occasionally a noun in the genitive). This genitival infinitive, like the 
Latin genitive, has various uses, and denotes the characteristic, the object, 
the tendency, the purpose, etc. But the infinitive at times stands in a datival 
relation, and translates a Latin gerundive in the dative or accusative, or ad 
plus a gerund or gerundive in the accusative, or an infinitive that modifies a 
noun; and this datival infinitive habitually denotes the tendency or the pur¬ 
pose of the thing indicated by the noun. At other times the infinitive stands 
in an ablative relation, and translates a supine in -u. This is not a complete 
list of the Latin correspondents of our infinitive, for that is not called for here; 1 
but these correspondents are given merely to help define the use of the infini¬ 
tive in Anglo-Saxon. 
The idiom is not common in the poems, less than a dozen examples having 
been found in a total, in prose and poetry, of about 242 examples. It is rela¬ 
tively frequent in Early West Saxon, Alfred having about 81 examples, not a 
few suggested by the Latin gerund or gerundive. It is rare in the Chronicle 
and in the Laws, neither furnishing more than a half dozen examples. It is 
not infrequent in iElfric and in the Gospels, but is rare in Wulfstan. 
At times it is difficult to decide whether the infinitive modifies a noun and 
is adjectival, or a verb and is adverbial; and this difficulty accounts for the 
chief differences between my statistics and those of others. For instance, 
Dr. Wiilfing, 2 1. c ., II, pp. 219 ff., puts here Bede 98.18 (502.9 2 ), 242.7 (558.27), 
330.18 a * b (592.25 a * b ), 480.29, 30 (647.26 a> b ), while to me the infinitive seems 
rather to modify the verb. 
The nouns modified by an infinitive may be roughly subdivided, as by Dr. 
Wiilfing, 3 into two big classes: (a) those Denoting Ideas and (b) those De¬ 
noting Things. 
1. Nouns Denoting Ideas. 
Nouns denoting ideas may be subdivided as follows: — 
1. Nouns Denoting Permission and Prohibition: — 
bewerenis, 'prohibition. leafnes, leave, permission. 
leaf, leave, permission. 
2. Nouns Denoting Power, Might, Capacity, and the like: — 
andgi(e)t, intelligence, ability. gelaeredness, learning, skill. 
anweald, power, authority. getydnes, learning, skill. 
bieldo, boldness. geweald, power, authority. 
1 The complete list of Latin correspondents is given in Chapter XIV, section xiii. 
2 The numbers in parenthesis refer to the edition of Bede used by Dr. Wiilfing, namely, Smith’s. 
3 Wiilfing, 2 l. c., II, pp. 219 ff. My minor subdivisions, too, in the main follow Dr. Wulfing’s. 
