tarantella

Borrowed from Italian tarantella, a diminutive of Taranto, a town in southern Italy (but popularly associated with tarantola (“tarantula”), on the belief that the dance was variously a result of, or cure for, its bite).

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˌtɛɹənˈtɛlə/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /tæɹənˈtɛlə/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛlə

tarantella (plural tarantellas)

1. A rapid dance in 6/8 time, originating in Italy, or a piece of music for such a dance.
   • 1868–1869, Louisa M[ay] Alcott, Little Women: […], (please specify |part=1 or 2), Boston, Mass.: Roberts Brothers, →OCLC:

     The set in which they found themselves was composed of English, and Amy was compelled to walk decorously through a cotillion, feeling all the while as if she could dance the tarantella with relish.

   • 1895, Bret Harte, The Devotion of Enriquez:

     "A tarantella, I presume?" blandly suggested the doctor.
     Miss Mannersley stopped, and rose carelessly from the piano. "It is a Moorish gypsy song of the fifteenth century," she said dryly.

   • 1922, Walter Lippmann, “chapter v”, in Public Opinion:

     We learn to understand why our addled minds seize so little with precision, why they are caught up and tossed about in a kind of tarantella by headlines and catch-words, why so often they cannot tell things apart or discern identity in apparent differences.

• tarantism

• tarantula

• IPA^(key): /ˈtɑrɑntelːɑ/, [ˈt̪ɑ̝rɑ̝n̪ˌt̪e̞lːɑ̝]
• Rhymes: -elːɑ
• Syllabification^(key): ta‧ran‧tel‧la
• Hyphenation^(key): ta‧ran‧tel‧la

Form of taranteli, folk-etymologically associated with tarantella (etymology 2); probably also by influence from English tarantula.

tarantella

1. alternative form of taranteli (“tarantula wolf spider, Lycosa tarantula”)
2. (colloquial) synonym of lintuhämähäkki

From Italian tarantella.

tarantella

1. tarantella (rapid dance of Italian origin)

• “tarantella”, in Kielitoimiston sanakirja [Dictionary of Contemporary Finnish]‎^[1] (in Finnish) (online dictionary, continuously updated), Kotimaisten kielten keskuksen verkkojulkaisuja 35, Helsinki: Kotimaisten kielten tutkimuskeskus (Institute for the Languages of Finland), 2004–, retrieved 1 January 2024

Diminutive of Taranto, a town in southern Italy (but popularly associated with tarantola (“tarantula”).

• IPA^(key): /ta.ranˈtɛl.la/
• Rhymes: -ɛlla
• Hyphenation: ta‧ran‧tèl‧la

tarantella f (plural tarantelle)

1. tarantella

• allattarne, rallentata