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How would you say "The older a rabbit gets, the more it behaves like a dog." in Latin? The literal translation from English would be "Senior cuniculus sit, plus agit ut canis.", but I guess that's not proper Latin. In Croatian, you say "Što je zec stariji, to se više ponaša kao pas.", which would literally translate as "Quod est cuniculus senior, id is plus agit ut canis.", but I guess that's not proper Latin either.

FlatAssembler
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1 Answers1

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"The ... the ..." is quo ... eo, hoc or tanto (see also this older answer). Thus we can say:

Quo quique cuniculus est senior, eo magis in modum canis se agit.

I think plus can also be used adverbially, but magis is more common. "Behave" in this sense is better captured by reflexive se agere than simple agere. Also, ut canis is not exactly wrong either, but in modum canis (in the manner of a dog) seems more descriptive to me.

Sebastian Koppehel
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    Are in modum and in modo both valid? If yes, is there a difference? – Joonas Ilmavirta Jun 25 '23 at 12:43
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    @JoonasIlmavirta Smith & Hall explicitly warn against in modo, but simple modo would be fine, and apparently more or less interchangeable. (I guess similar to how "in the fashion of/after the fashion of" in English basically means the same.) – Sebastian Koppehel Jun 25 '23 at 22:28
  • And, what do you think, is the sentence telling the truth? – FlatAssembler Jun 26 '23 at 16:16
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    @FlatAssembler I doubt it :) – Sebastian Koppehel Jun 26 '23 at 23:21
  • @SebastianKoppehel I also think that rabbits don't actually love their owners. – FlatAssembler Jun 27 '23 at 09:12
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    @Sebastian Koppehel: Could, "The more democracies are threatened, the more they behave like tyrannies.", be translated analogously e.g. "quo quique liber-populus impendetur, eo magis in modum tyrannidis se agit."? – tony Jun 28 '23 at 11:19
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    @tony That sounds good to me, only liber populus (a free people) is perhaps not the most obvious translation for "democracy." But then, there probably isn't a very good one. Georges gives the rather cumbersome civitas populari imperio utens. – Sebastian Koppehel Jul 01 '23 at 00:50
  • @Sebastian Koppehel: Thanks. One thing disturbs me: all the examples, here, and in your older answer, all have a comparative in both clauses. I omitted a "magis" in the "quo"-clause (Cicero had a comparative in the "quo"-clause); now, I'm not so sure--please advise. Thanks again. – tony Jul 01 '23 at 12:19
  • @Sebastian Koppehel: Oxford gives a shorter, "civitas popularis", as well as "liber populus". I don't think that the Romans appreciated democracy, in the sense that we do; if they did, they weren't interested. The Romans didn't even bother to adopt the Greek word for it. – tony Jul 01 '23 at 12:28
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    @tony Oops, you're right, there should be some comparative in your first part. Say, quo quaeque civitas est infestior, eo … – Sebastian Koppehel Jul 01 '23 at 12:28