tarantella

[ tar-uhn-tel-uh ]

noun

1. a rapid, whirling southern Italian dance in very quick sextuple, originally quadruple, meter, usually performed by a single couple, and formerly supposed to be a remedy for tarantism.
2. a piece of music either for the dance or in its rhythm.

tarantella

/ ˌtærənˈtɛlə /

noun

1. a peasant dance from S Italy
2. a piece of music composed for or in the rhythm of this dance, in fast six-eight time

Word History and Origins

Origin of tarantella¹

1775–85; < Italian, equivalent to Tarant ( o ) Taranto + -ella -elle

Word History and Origins

Origin of tarantella¹

C18: from Italian, from Taranto Taranto ; associated with tarantism

Example Sentences

Alarms ding every couple of minutes, accentuating the insanity of Donna's frenetic tarantella between her wine glass, a blazing stove, and a countertop stacked with pots and pans in use or used up.

From Salon

And when her options shrink almost to none, she short-circuits; the seductive tarantella she dances to keep Torvald from reading a fateful letter becomes a kind of seizure.

From New York Times

That couldn’t last forever, though: At the coda of that tarantella finale, here impressively cohesive amid increasingly frantic chorales and unstable runs, Death arrives in a sudden minor-key turn, delivered in grandly Romantic fashion.

From New York Times

In the tango that followed, what was previously implied in rhythm became literal in exotic-Spain castanets, and the closing tarantella took itself too seriously.

From New York Times

Then I realized such a pose had been used by John Singer Sargent, of a woman dancing the tarantella in his moody masterpiece “El Jaleo.”

From Washington Post