Zodiac Signs in Italian: All 12 Names & Meanings

Of all the languages in this series, the zodiac signs in Italian have travelled the shortest distance. The names came into Latin from Greek, Latin turned into Italian, and the words simply came along for the ride. Sagittarius became Sagittario. Capricornus became Capricorno. You can watch the language change shape without ever losing the thread.

Which makes the two exceptions all the more interesting, because Italian did throw two of the Latin names away and build its own from scratch.

All 12 Zodiac Signs in Italian

Italian pronunciation rewards a little attention. The c is hard before a, o and u but soft before e and i: Cancro has a hard K, Bilancia a soft “ch”. The g works the same way, which is why Gemelli starts with a “j” sound. And sc before i becomes “sh”, which gives you Pesci as “PEH-shee”. Double consonants are held twice as long, so Gemelli and Sagittario both need a genuine pause in the middle.

Ten Italian Zodiac Signs Straight From Latin

Most of these need no explanation beyond the sound shift. A few carry something extra.

Aries in Italian: Ariete

Not from the Latin nominative aries but from the accusative arietem, which is how almost all Italian nouns descend. An ariete is also a battering ram — the siege engine — because the Romans named the machine after the animal, and Italian kept both senses. See the Aries profile.

Taurus in Italian: Toro

Taurus lost its ending and its diphthong and became Toro. It is the same word behind Spanish toro and behind the bull in every Italian phrase about strength: forte come un toro, strong as a bull. More in the Taurus profile.

Cancer in Italian: Cancro

A crab, and also cancer the disease, exactly as in Latin and in English. Italian shares this doubling with German Krebs. Read the Cancer profile.

Leo in Italian: Leone

From leonem. This is a name that carries real cultural freight in Italy — the winged lion of Saint Mark is the symbol of Venice, and the Golden Lion is the prize at the Venice Film Festival. See the Leo profile.

Virgo in Italian: Vergine

From virginem, and it means virgin rather than maiden. Italian is direct about this where the Germanic languages softened it. One of only two feminine signs in the Italian list. More in the Virgo profile.

Scorpio in Italian: Scorpione

From scorpionem. Unlike northern Europe, Italy actually has scorpions — small, mostly harmless ones common in old stone houses across the centre and south — so this is one of the few places in this series where the word describes a familiar animal rather than an imported idea. See the Scorpio profile.

Sagittarius in Italian: Sagittario

From sagitta, an arrow. Italian is one of the few languages that kept the Latin word for the weapon rather than translating the archer into a native “shooter”, as German and Scandinavian did. See the Sagittarius profile.

Capricorn in Italian: Capricorno

Caper (goat) plus cornu (horn): goat-horn. Italian preserves the compound intact, so unlike the Germanic languages — which all swapped in a native ibex — Italian Capricorn still points back to the goat-fish of Babylonian myth. Read the Capricorn profile.

Aquarius in Italian: Acquario

From aquarius, “of water”. Note the spelling: Italian doubled the c, giving Acquario, and it is also the ordinary word for a fish tank. The Aquarius profile has the sign.

Pisces in Italian: Pesci

Plural of pesce, fish. Almost unchanged from the Latin plural pisces, and one of the two plural signs in Italian. See the Pisces profile.

Two Italian Star Signs That Left the Latin Behind

Libra in Italian: Bilancia

This is the interesting one. Spanish kept Libra. Portuguese kept Libra. English kept Libra. Italian did not.

Bilancia comes from Latin bilanx, “two-panned” — bi- plus lanx, a dish or scale-pan. It describes the object rather than naming it, and it is the same word behind English “balance” and French balance. So while every other Romance language in this series points at an abstract Roman weight, Italian points at a physical instrument with two pans. It is also the everyday Italian word for any set of scales. The Libra profile covers the sign.

Gemini in Italian: Gemelli

Latin had two words for twin: geminus and its diminutive gemellus. The constellation used Gemini, from the first. Italian took the second, which is why Italian twins are gemelli and not gemini. Same family, different branch — and gemelli also means cufflinks, since they come in matched pairs. The Gemini profile has more.

Di Che Segno Sei? Talking About Signs in Italian

Italians do not ask what your sign is. They ask what sign you are of:

• Di che segno sei? — literally “of what sign are you?” This is the standard question, and it is worth learning as a fixed phrase.
• Sono Leone. — I’m a Leo.
• Sono del Leone. — Also correct, literally “I am of the Leo”.
• Il mio segno zodiacale è Bilancia. — My star sign is Libra.
• Sono nato sotto il segno dello Scorpione. — I was born under the sign of Scorpio.
• Tipico Ariete! — Typical Aries!

That construction with di plus the article is where learners come unstuck, because Italian contracts the two into a single word and the result depends on how the sign name begins. Here is the full set:

Dello Scorpione is the one nobody guesses. Italian uses lo rather than il in front of s followed by another consonant, so Scorpio is the only sign in the twelve that takes this form.

Italian Astrology Vocabulary

L’Oroscopo in Italy

Italy takes its horoscopes more seriously than northern Europe does, and it has produced genuine celebrities out of them. Paolo Fox has been reading the oroscopo on Italian television and radio for decades, publishes an annual almanac that sells in volume, and is quoted in ordinary conversation the way a weather forecaster might be. The year-ahead broadcast is something close to an event.

The register follows from that. Italian horoscope writing is warmer and more expansive than its Scandinavian equivalent — it takes itself half-seriously rather than not at all — and translations that strip out the warmth read as cold rather than concise.

Frequently Asked Questions

Zodiac Signs in Italian and the Other Romance Languages

Compare the zodiac signs in Spanish, which kept Libra where Italian rebuilt it, and the zodiac signs in Portuguese, which uses both Libra and Balança depending on the country. For the opposite strategy — languages that translated every image into native vocabulary and kept almost no Latin at all — see the German and Finnish lists.

All ten languages: zodiac signs in different languages.