Scorpio

How to spell scorpio

7 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce scorpio

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does scorpio mean?

1. nounThe eighth sign of the zodiac, associated with people born between roughly 23 October and 21 November.
2. nounA constellation of the southern sky, traditionally pictured as a scorpion.

Scorpio in a sentence

• Her birthday falls in early November, so she is a scorpio.

• The bright red star Antares marks the heart of scorpio.

• The magazine printed a long horoscope for scorpio this month.

• On clear summer nights you can trace the curved tail of scorpio low on the horizon.

Where does scorpio come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word comes directly from the Latin scorpio, meaning 'scorpion', which the Romans in turn borrowed from the Greek skorpios, the name of the venomous arachnid. The ancient astronomers saw the curved arc of a particular group of stars and imagined the tail and sting of a scorpion, so they named the constellation after the creature. From classical antiquity the name passed into Latin astrological texts and then into medieval European usage, reaching English by way of Latin during the Middle Ages. The very same root survives in the everyday English word 'scorpion', which simply added the French-influenced ending that Scorpio kept in its bare Latin form. The retained Latin -io ending is exactly the spelling point worth remembering, since the word looks unusual to modern eyes that expect 'scorpion' or 'scorpie'.

How the word is built

• scorpi- (from Latin scorpio: scorpion)
• -o (Latin noun ending)