tarantula
Pronunciation: /təˈɹæn.t͡ʃʊ.lə/
The English word “tarantula” has 3 meanings listed here.
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).
Etymology
From Medieval Latin tarantula, from Old Italian tarantola, from Taranto (“seaport in southern Italy”), from Latin Tarentum (“Latin name of the town”), from Ancient Greek Τάρᾱς (Tárās, “Greek name of the town”), genitive Τᾰ́ρᾰντος; compare Modern Greek Τάραντας (Tárantas) and Tarantino Tarde. probably from Illyrian *darandos (“oak”). Sense 3 (“Lycosa tarantula”) is the original sense of the word,…
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More English words
- Tarantino
- Tarantinoesque
- Tarantinoverse
- tarantism
- tarantula hawk
- tarantula juice
- tarantula killer
- tarantula wasp
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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.