Eggheads on BBC2

[robert551069]

The two remaining contestants won £7000 last night because four Eggheads did not know the Latin for "That which must be done"
The answer given by the quizmaster was "Agendum"

[jno]

sounds correct. The plural is agenda, but this would mean "those which must be done". Agenda is however singular in modern English.

[emmie]

confess i wouldn't have known either, apart from Boris Johnson i haven't come across anyone who speaks Latin. Well done to the team who beat them

[FredPuli43]

Latin 'agendum' is a gerund, a verb in the form of a noun which conveys the meaning of obligation. Thus a 'memorandum' is 'a thing which must be remembered' , from the verb 'memorare' , 'to remember', and 'a thing which must be done' is an 'agendum', from 'agere', 'to act, to do'. The plurals end in 'a' for 'um' so 'memoranda' and 'agenda'.

It's curiously pedantic to give 'agendum' as the correct answer. It's a quiz question on English, not Latin, and nobody ever talks of the agendum, or the first item in an agenda as 'the first agendum'. It's a wonder that the quizmaster didn't insist upon the Latin pronunciation, with a hard 'G'.

[seadogg]

Couldn't comment on the Latin but its nice to see a bomb put under the eggheads now and then.

[jno]

I didn't see the programme, FredPuli, but if the question was "What's the Latin for 'that which must be done'?" agendum is the answer.

[Francis Asis]

The correct answer was given as "agenda" as the question was "what English word...."