§510. Supine

The Supine in -ū ¹ is used with a few adjectives and with the nouns fās, nefās, and opus, to denote an action in reference to which the quality is asserted:—

• rem nōn modo vīsū foedam, sed etiam audītū (Phil. 2.63), a thing not only shocking to see, but even to hear of.
• quaerunt quid optimum factū sit (Verr. 2.1.68), they ask what is best to do.
• sī hōc fās est dictū (Tusc. 5.38), if this is lawful to say.
• vidētis nefās esse dictū miseram fuisse tālem senectūtem (Cat. M. 13), you see it is a sin to say that such an old age was wretched.

• nec vīsū facilis nec dictū adfābilis ūllī; (Aen. 3.621), he is not pleasant for any man to look at or address.
• difficilis ad distinguendum similitūdō; (De Or. 2.212), a likeness difficult to distinguish.