# such praise coming from so degraded a source was degrading



## aviv chadash

Hello!
A quote from the peerless orator Cicero!:
"Such praise coming from so degraded a source was degrading to me, its recipient".
May someone translate this for me?
You may glean from my other posts my Latin has not yet equipped me to translate this! It's more than a dictionary look-up excercise...
For example, there is the difficulty of the correct word to use for "source" I reasoned it was either radix or profectio, but I'm not absolutely sure, and I've never used "so" as in "so degraded".
Any help much appreciated.


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## Starfrown

If you were to try to translate that sentence into Latin, you wouldn't come up with anything close to the original, of which it is a very loose translation.  For your information, here is what Cicero wrote, along with a more literal interpretation of my own:

_Quae quidem laudatio hominis turpissimi mihi ipsi erat paene turpis_.
"Indeed, such praise from a most disgraceful man was almost disgraceful to me myself."

The _quae _("which") is a connective relative, which is often rendered by "such" in English translation.

_Hominis turpissimi_ ("of a most disgraceful man", "a most disgraceful man's") is a subjective genitive, but would be very awkward to translate literally here.


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## aviv chadash

Many thanks Starfrown.
So the Quae is the feminine singular, and is referring to the earlier praise that is not included in the quote.


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## Starfrown

aviv chadash said:


> Many thanks Starfrown.
> So the Quae is the feminine singular, and is referring to the earlier praise that is not included in the quote.


I think you've got it, but I just want to make sure you know that_ quae_ is the feminine nominative singular of the relative adjective, and modifies _laudatio_, thus giving literally "which praise." As you say, the nature and content of the praise must have been specified earlier.


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## aviv chadash

I'm confused as to when the relative pronoun doesn't function as a relative adjective? Additionally, I did not know it was in the nominative. Furthermore, what form is laudatio? To risk asking too many obvious questions!
Thanks for all the help so far!


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## Starfrown

aviv chadash said:


> I'm confused as to when the relative pronoun doesn't function as a relative adjective? Additionally, I did not know it was in the nominative. Furthermore, what form is laudatio? To risk asking too many obvious questions!
> Thanks for all the help so far!


The relative pronoun and the relative adjective are two different things. Here are two English sentences that should help you see the difference:

"Yesterday I met with Marcus, whom I had known since childhood."
"Yesterday I met with Marcus, which man I had known since childhood."

In the first, "whom" is a relative pronoun, while in the second "which" is a relative adjective modifying "man." Both "whom" and "which man" refer back to Marcus. The second sentence is obviously quite unlikely in contemporary English, but such sentences were extremely common in classical Latin.
----
_Laudatio, -tionis_ is a feminine third declension noun derived from the verb _laudo, laudare, laudavi, laudatum_. The form _laudatio_ is nominative singular.


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## aviv chadash

Many thanks Starfrown, this has all been extremely helpful.


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