Animæ

Animæ is the Latin plural form of anima, meaning souls or life-principles. In Latin, anima refers to the breath, life, or soul that animates living beings, and animæ is the spelling variant often used in manuscripts and ecclesiastical or scholastic Latin to denote the plural of anima. In ordinary Latin grammar, anima is a first-declension feminine noun, and animæ appears as the common plural form in many medieval and early modern texts, typically written as animae in standard modern transcription.

In classical and medieval usage, animæ functions primarily as the plural for souls or spiritual beings. The term occurs in religious, philosophical, and literary contexts, where it can denote the souls of humans, animals, or spiritual entities, depending on the passage. Christian writers frequently employ animæ in prayers or doctrinal expositions about the afterlife, judgment, and the fate of souls, while ancient authors discuss the soul as the life principle of a living being.

Philosophically, anima often designates the immaterial soul rather than mere vitality. In Aristotle and later scholastic thought, discussions of the soul are sometimes structured around a tripartite model: vegetative (anima vegetativa), sensitive (anima sensitiva), and rational (anima rationalis). The compound term anima mundi appears in Neoplatonism and medieval philosophy to denote a universal or world soul that animates the cosmos. The Latin term thus influenced later European notions of vitality and personhood, giving rise to descendants such as animate and animal.

See also: anima mundi, anima (philosophy), soul, animation, linguistic variant animae.