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)

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• 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, Louisa M[ay] Alcott, Little Women: Or, Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy, (please specify |part=1 or 2), Boston, Mass.: Roberts Brothers, OCLC 30743985:

     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/, [ˈt̪ɑrɑnˌt̪e̞lːɑ]
• Rhymes: -elːɑ
• Syllabification^(key): ta‧ran‧tel‧la

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)

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