Noun characteristics of the gerund

A gerund, or verbal noun, is a form of a verb with an -ing ending which has some of the characteristics of a noun. For example, it can be the object of a verb: The council has decided to ban smoking in its offices or the subject of a verb: Smoking is strictly forbidden.

But it can also retain some characteristics of a verb - for instance, if its base verb is transitive, a gerund can take an object: Smoking a pipe is supposed to be less harmful than smoking cigarettes.

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It's analogous to the Latin gerundium = a verbal noun in Latin that occurs in the genitive singular, dative singular, accusative singular, and ablative singular and that expresses the action of the verb as generalized or in continuance.