Etymology

tarantella

T1A1R1A1N1T1E1L1L1A1

Today it means: A rapid dance in 6/8 time, originating in Italy, or a piece of music for such a dance. Full definition →

Italian tarantella
Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

The story

  1. Italian · borrowed fromtarantella
  2. English todaytarantella

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).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.