masculi

Masculi is a term that appears in Latin grammar rather than as an independent English vocabulary item. It most often functions as a form of the noun masculus, meaning a male person or a male animal, or as a morphological form related to that noun.

In Latin, masculus is a second-declension masculine noun. Its nominative plural is masculinī, and its genitive singular is also masculinī. This means that the string masculinī can correspond to two different grammatical functions depending on context: it can be the plural subject “the males,” or it can be the singular possessive “of the male.” The pronunciation and meaning are determined by surrounding words and the syntactic role of the phrase.

Because of this ambiguity, masculine forms like masculinī are typically analyzed within Latin grammar rather than treated as independent English terms. In classical texts, such forms appear in discussions of gender, anatomy, or descriptions of animals, where the reference is to male individuals. In modern scholarship and Neo-Latin usage, masculinī may be cited as an example of second-declension morphology and as a reminder of how Latin forms can be identical across different grammatical functions.

Overall, masculi is not a standalone English word with a fixed meaning; rather, it is a Latin morphological form tied to the noun masculus. Its significance lies in understanding Latin declension patterns and how context determines whether it represents “the males” or “of the male.” See also Latin grammar, Latin nouns, and second-declension nouns.