animulus

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

(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.
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”)]