animulus

Latin

Etymology

From animus + -ulus.

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [aˈnɪ.mʊ.ɫʊs]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [aˈniː.mu.lus]
• Hyphenation: a‧ni‧mu‧lus

Noun

animulus m (genitive animulī); second declension

2. (endearing) diminutive of animus (“life”); (in the vocative case) used as an affectionate term of address; darling (person who is very dear to one); sweetheart (a person very much liked or loved by someone)

   Synonyms: corculum n, dēliciae f pl, melculum n (literally “little honey”), [meum] mel n (literally “[my] honey”), ocellus m

   mī animule! / animule mī! ― my heart / darling!

   Tē amō, mī animule! ― I love you, my heart!

   • c. 200 BCE, Plautus, Menaechmi 2.3.10:

     Animule mī, mihĭ mīra videntur,

     • 1912 translation by Henry Thomas Riley

       My dear life, it seems wonderful to me

   • c. 180 BCE, Plautus, Casina 1.1.46:

     Quom mihĭ illa dīcet: mī animule, mī Olympiō,

     • 1912 translation by Henry Thomas Riley

       while she is saying to me, “My soul, my own Olympio, […]!”

Declension

Second-declension noun.

	singular	plural
nominative	animulus	animulī
genitive	animulī	animulōrum
dative	animulō	animulīs
accusative	animulum	animulōs
ablative	animulō	animulīs
vocative	animule	animulī

Further reading

• “ănĭmŭlus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• animulus in Georges, Karl Ernst; Georges, Heinrich (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th edition, volume 1, Hahnsche Buchhandlung, column 440
• “animulus”, in Gaffiot, Félix (1934), Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette, page 129, column 1.
• Harm Pinkster, editor (2018), “animulus”, in Woordenboek Latijn/Nederlands‎^[1], 7th revised edition, Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, →ISBN, →OCLC
• Latino-Sinicum [mī animule translated as 我的心肝 (wǒ de xīngān, “my heart”)]