animula

See also: Animula

Italian

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin animula, diminutive of anima (soul).

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /aˈni.mu.la/
  • Rhymes: -imula
  • Hyphenation: a‧nì‧mu‧la

Noun

animula f (plural animule)

  1. (literary) diminutive of anima: a small or little soul
    • 1918, Ada Negri, “Alessandrina Ravizza (1846–1915)”, in Orazioni, Milan: Fratelli Treves editori, page 34:
      Penetrò, con il proprio istinto psicologico che non fallava mai, nell’intimo di quelle animule, pozzi profondi d’acqua avvelenata.
      With her infallible psychological instinct, she penetrated in the innermost part of those little souls, deep wells of poisoned water.
  2. (literary, figurative) a sensitive person
  3. (archaeology) a depiction of a deceased's soul

Further reading

  • animula in Treccani.it – Vocabolario Treccani on line, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana

Anagrams

Latin

Etymology

    anima (soul) +‎ -ula (diminutive suffix)

    Pronunciation

    Noun

    animula f (genitive animulae); first declension

    1. a small soul, spirit, life
      • 76 CE – 108 CE, Hadrian, Carmina 3:
        Animula vagula blandula,
        hospes comesque corporis,
        quae nunc abībis in loca
        pallidula, rigida, nūdula,
        nec ut solēs dabis iocōs...
        • Translation by Wikisource
          Little soul, wandering, pleasing,
          guest and companion of the body,
          which now go away in places
          pale, stiff, bare,
          and will not jest as you do...
      • 1611, Johannes Kepler, Strena seu de nive sexangula 11:
        Has igitur rationes materialem necessitatem respicientes ita puto sufficere, ut hoc loco non existimem philosophandum de perfectione et pulrhritudine vel nobilitate figurae rhombicae: neque satagendum, ut essentia animulae quae est in ape, ex contemplatione figurae, quam fabricatur, eliciatur.
        These therefore are the reasons considering the material necessity, so I think it sufficient that at this point I do not consider philosophizing about the perfection, beauty, or nobility of the rhombic shape, nor fussing that the essence of the small soul which is in the bee is elicited from a meditation on the shape that is built.

    Declension

    First-declension noun.

    singular plural
    nominative animula animulae
    genitive animulae animulārum
    dative animulae animulīs
    accusative animulam animulās
    ablative animulā animulīs
    vocative animula animulae

    Descendants

    • Italian: animula (learned)
    • Translingual: Animula

    References

    • animula”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
    • animula”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
    • animula in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.