Thread: лакейскую?

Hello,

I'm translating again. This time I'm trying to figure out "лакейскую." Thank you for all your help in the last thread. I've figured out that "лакей" is a noun and means "lackey"; however, I do not know what the "-ску" does. Does the "-ю" make the noun female accusative?

Thanks!

Context:

Отыскалась где-то и Катя, которая опять пела другую лакейскую песню о том, как кто-то, «подлец и тиран», Начал Катю целовать.

"лакейскую" is an adjective made of "лакей" (lackey, flunkey, manservant). "-ую" does indicate the female gender of the noun which the adjective "лакейскую" is referred to.

Please provide a full phrase (or even a paragraph) in such questions. Normally it is impossible to translate one word without a context.

Depending on context "лакейскую" can be either adjective in feminine form, Accusative case or adjectival noun in Accusative case.

If adjective, "лакейская" can mean, for example "servile". If noun, it means "the room downstairs" that is the room in noble house where servants reside.

Thank you. I've added context in the first post.

Ah, you've got the link to "Crime and Punishment"? That's good.
In the context it means "a low-grade, mediocre, mean song", because лакейский also means "servile" etc.

I think here it is equivalent of "song of lower class".

(I don't think that "Crime and punishment" is good reading to start learning Russian. Dostoyevsky is known for his very unusual language and especially for irregular usage of words.)