tarantism

AI In plain words

Writing a short explanation…

Written by a house AI from the entry below, in your language. The entry itself is the source.

tarantism

/ˈtæɹəntɪzm/ UK
/ˈtæɹənˌtɪzm/ US

Where it comes from

From New Latin tarantismus + English -ism (suffix forming nouns of action, process, or result), from Old Italian Taranto (“seaport in southern Italy”) + Latin -ismus (“-ism”); see further at tarantula. The English word is cognate with French tarentisme, Italian tarantismo.

noun tarantisms · tarentism

uncountable, usually An extreme urge to dance, popularly thought to have been caused by the bite of a tarantula (Lycosa tarantula) and prevalent in southern Italy in the 15th through 17th centuries. This dancing mania or tarantism prevailed during the whole of the 17th century — and Baglivi, one of the best physicians of that time, made it the subject of a dissertation. He supports his history of the symptoms by the testimony of his father, […]
Similar: choreomania, dancing mania

Translations

Every language

noun an extreme urge to dance thought to have been caused by the bite of a tarantula

Português	tarantismo
Français	tarentisme
Deutsch	Tanzwut

Talk about this word

Cite this

MLA

"tarantism." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/tarantism. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

tarantism. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/tarantism

Chicago

"tarantism." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/tarantism.

BibTeX

@misc{tarantism_2026,
  title = {tarantism},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/tarantism},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}