Cancro

Forms

Cancro m^[1]

Etymology

The name of the constellation and sign of the zodiac is learned: it is borrowed from Latin Cancer (“crab; the constellation Cancer”).^[2][3][4][5] The Latin name was itself a calque of Ancient Greek καρκίνος (karkínos, “crab”), the Greek name of the constellation.^[3] The common noun cancro, the malignant tumour, is the same Latin word, named after the crab because the branches of a tumour recall its legs.^[2][6][5] The popular form of that word is canchero, and the usual word for the animal, granchio, goes back to a form with metathesis attested in Late Latin as crancus.^[6][7][3][1] The same learned word is French cancer.^[6]

De Vaan can connect the Latin word with words outside Italic only by assuming that an earlier Proto-Italic *karkros (“enclosure”) (as in carcer (“enclosure, prison”)) was dissimilated to *kankros.^[8][1][9] The crab would then be named for the circle its pincers form.^[8][1] Wiktionary takes the root to Proto-Indo-European *kr-kr- (“circular”), a reduplication of *(s)ker- (“to turn, bend”), which de Vaan gives only with a question mark.^[1][8] Nocentini and de Vaan compare the Greek word for the crab.^[6][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first Italian record is in Ristoro d'Arezzo, in 1282, who names the first points of Capricorn and Cancer on the circle of the horizon: lo primo ponto de capricorno e lo primo ponto de cancro en su lo cerchio de l'orizzonte (“the first point of Capricorn and the first point of Cancer on the circle of the horizon”).^[2][10] Ristoro also explains the northern point of the sun's path as the ponto de cancro, because Cancer is pictured there.^[11]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian used the word for the sign of the zodiac in both Tuscan and northern texts, often in the Latin shape: a Mantuan text of 1299–1309 has a chapter del cancer, and the Venetian Zibaldone da Canal of 1310–1330 counts Cançer among the watery signs.^[10] The phrases essere, stare or entrare in Cancro described the sun in that sign, at midsummer.^[10] Glosses on the Sfera written after 1314 explain the name: the crab walks backwards, and so the sun, once in Cancer, begins to turn back.^[10] Tommaseo quotes Dante's Paradiso (se 'l Cancro avesse un tal cristallo, “if Cancer had such a crystal”) and Giovanni Villani's segno del Cancro.^[12]

The tropico del Cancro, the northern tropic, is recorded from 1313–1314.^[10] In modern astrology the name also stands for a person born under the sign, and is then used without change for either sex, also as an adjective.^[5][4]

Timeline

• 1282 – Ristoro d'Arezzo names the first point of Cancer.^[2][10]
• 1299–1309 – A Mantuan text has a chapter del cancer.^[10]
• 1313–1314 – Zucchero's Sfera has tropico di Cancro.^[10]
• About 1341 – A Florentine version of Alfonso X's astronomical books places a star in Cancro.^[10]

Meanings

Proper noun

1. (astronomy) Cancer, a constellation of the zodiac between Gemini and Leo, where the Sun stands at the summer solstice.^{[13][14][15][4]}
2. (astrology) The fourth sign of the zodiac, ruling the period from 22 June to 22 July: Sono nata sotto il segno del Cancro.^{[5][13][14][15]}
3. (astrology) A person born under this sign; it is invariable and is also used as an adjective: Mio fratello è un Cancro.^[5][4][14]

Related words

• cancro
• canchero
• granchio
• tropico
• carcinoma
• Latin cancer

Usage notes

The name of the constellation and the sign is written with a capital, while the lowercase cancro is the tumour, and in old use the crab.^[5][13][14] The phrase tropico del Cancro names the northern tropic, the parallel where the Sun is at the zenith at the summer solstice.^[14][13]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
3. ^ a b c Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 715
4. ^ a b c d Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
5. ^ a b c d e f De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
6. ^ a b c d Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
7. ^ Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 10, 655
8. ^ a b c d de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
10. ^ a b c d e f g h i Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
11. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
12. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
13. ^ a b c d Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
14. ^ a b c d e Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
15. ^ a b Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)