§348. Objective Genitive
Nouns of action, agency, and feeling govern the Genitive of the Object:—
| cāritās tuī, affection for you. | dēsīderium ōtī, longing for rest. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| vacātiō mūneris, relief from duty. | grātia beneficī, gratitude for kindness. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| fuga malōrum, refuge from disaster. | precātiō deōrum, prayer to the gods. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| contentiō honōrum, struggle for office. | opīniō virtūtis, reputation for valor. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
a. The objective genitive is sometimes replaced by a possessive pronoun or other derivative adjective:—
- mea invidia, my unpopularity (the dislike of which I am the object). [Cf. odium
meī
(Har. Resp. 5), hatred of me.] -
laudātor meus
(Att. 1.16.5), my eulogist (one who praises me). [Cf. nostrī laudātor (id. 1.14.6).] -
Clōdiānum crīmen
(Mil. 72), the murder of Clodius (the Clodian charge). [As we say, the Nathan murder.] -
metus hostīlis
(Iug. 41), fear of the enemy (hostile fear). -
ea quae faciēbat, tuā sē fīdūciā facere dīcēbat
(Verr. 5.176), what he was doing, he said he did relying on you (with your reliance). -
neque neglegentiā tuā, neque id odiō fēcit tuō
(Ter. Ph. 1016), he did this neither from neglect nor from hatred of you.
b. Rarely the objective genitive is used with a noun already limited by another genitive:—
- animī multārum rērum percursiō; (Tusc. 4.31), the mind's traversing of many things.
c. A noun with a preposition is often used instead of the objective genitive:—
-
odium in Antōnium
(Fam. 10.5.3), hate of Antony. - merita ergā mē (id. 1.1.1), services to me.
- meam in tē pietātem (id. 1.9.1), my devotion to you.
-
impetus in urbem
(Phil. 12.29), an attack on the city. -
excessus ē vītā
(Fin. 3.60), departure from life. [Also, excessus vītae, Tusc. 1.27.] -
adoptiō in Domitium
(Tac. Ann. 12.25), the adoption of Domitius. [A late and bold extension of this construction.]
J. H. Allen and J. B. Greenough, New Latin Grammar (Boston: Ginn, 1903). Text provided under a CC BY-SA license by Perseus Digital Library, http://www.perseus.tufts.edu, with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities.