10 NOVEMBER 1950, Page 5

Technical difficulties connected with the printers' dispute (now happily at

an end) prevented me from dealing last week with the word "propaganda," and replying to the various correspondents who have courteously pointed out that the origin of the word is the phrase "Congregatio de propaganda fide," and that it is an ablative singular, not a nominative (or accusative) plural. I know the dictionaries say that. But why do they say it ? In what respect does propaganda (meet to be propagated) differ from addenda (meet to be added), corrigenda (needing to be corrected), memoranda (meet to be remembered) and other similar words. Are they all ablative singulars ? On the face of it, they are the neuter plural of the gerundive. Why not ?