tarantula

Meaning

Noun

• Any of the large, hairy New World spiders comprising the family Theraphosidae.
• A member of certain other groups of spiders, generally characterized by large size, hairiness, or membership of infraorder Mygalomorphae to which Theraphosidae family also belongs.
• A species of wolf spider, Lycosa tarantula, native to southern Europe, the mildly poisonous bite of which was once thought to cause an extreme urge to dance (tarantism).

Origin

• From Medieval Latin tarantula, from Old Italian tarantola, from Taranto, from Latin Tarentum, from Ancient Greek Τάρᾱς (compare Modern Greek Τάραντας and Tarantino Tarde), probably from Illyrian *darandos.
• Sense 3 (“Lycosa tarantula”) is the original sense of the word, and refers to the fact that the spider was common in the Apulia region where Taranto is located. Sense 1 (“New World spider in the family Theraphosidae”), the main modern sense of the word, may have been a transferred use of Spanish tarántula to describe large, hairy spiders found in the New World.