zodiac sign as untranslatable italian words:
Aries: Trasecolare. (lit. being outside the century; transcending the century; being outside of reality) – verb. losing one’s mind; reaching a state of ecstatic not-being-there through exhaltation, stupor or rage. an extreme, incontrollable state of disbelief and anger. to be out of yourself. used for the medieval hero Orlando in Tasso’s Orlando furioso.
Taurus: Meriggiare. (der. of meridies ‘meriggio’, midday, the hottest hours of the day) – verb. to rest outside immersed in nature, under the shade of a tree. to spend the hottest moment of the day under the cool shade of a tree or building, resting. found in the splendid poem Meriggiare pallido e assorto, by poet Eugenio Montale.
Gemini: Chiacchierone/a. (lit. someone who chats) – noun. someone who talks a lot, sometimes when they shouldn’t; a social butterfly; someone who, however pleasant, has troubles keeping secrets for themselves. used in both a positive or negative way.
Cancer: Strappacuore. (lit. something that carves the heart out of you) – noun. something so strongly moving that it troubles you deeply; that invokes pathos & true, deep sorrow. something that lacerates your heart because of how sad, humane, moving it is.
Leo: Solleone. (lit. Lion-Sun) – noun for the time period from mid-july to mid-august, when the sun’s at its harshest, fullest, most glorious point. on the calendar, it’s when the sun is in Leo; but it’s also used to describe a very powerful day of sun, when the heat is heavy, the light is overwhelming, and the sun reigns over all other elements.
Virgo: Pignolo/a. (from pigna, lit. a pine cone, referring to its hardness and compactness) – someone who’s very precise, nitpicky and meticulous. the type of person who notices an error and points it out straight away.
Libra: Sfizio. (lit. whim, fancy) – noun. a caprice, a fanciful desire; the type of wanting you get for something superfluous that appeals to your senses. you crave to indulge in it, just for the fun of it. to indulge in the sfizio is said as togliersi lo sfizio, literally to take the sfizio out of oneself.
Scorpio: Struggimento. (der. of destroy. meaning, to being destroyed) – noun for the act of being strutto, which means being dissolved, melted, untied. being in a state of desperate, burning longing; experiencing a tearing-apart of the self. an all-consuming sense of emotional turbulence.
Sagittarius: Rocambolesco. (der. of Rocambole, the protagonist of a xix series of adventure novels) – adjective for something that’s bold, picaresque, marvelous in its daring. a journey, a story or a dream that presents an almost dream-like quality of being adventurous, risky and full of incredible moments of adrenaline.
Capricorn: Menefreghismo. (der. of me ne frego, lit. i couldn’t care less) – noun. a lack of caring for what may happen to others; an attitude of detached disinterest; individualism and non-malicious lack of concern for other people’s struggles, victories, needs.
Aquarius: Dietrologia. (lit. the logic of what’s-behind) – noun, attributing secret meanings to everything. seeing patterns & conspiracies behind ordinary events. often used in political debates, to accuse the opposite party of being paranoid and excessively hypothetical.
Pisces: Magari. (der. of greek makárie, meaning ‘happy’) – exclamation, used to express a deep desire for something that cannot happen. sometimes used in the form magaraddìo (magari to God!), meaning a wishful if only God wanted it to be so…!
jbbartram-illu
blakekathryn
ellievsbear
janainaart
jacobvanloon
gummygunk
yousharknotpass
