Tarantola

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A large, hairy spider known for its size and often kept as a pet; a creature belonging to the family Theraphosidae, typically found in warm regions; characterized by its robust body and long legs, often provoking fear due to its appearance
2. An impressive arachnid with a stout body and long limbs, often leading to misconceptions about its danger; found in various habitats, exhibiting a docile nature when handled; commonly mistaken for dangerous species despite being relatively harmless
3. A type of sizable spider recognized for its hairy texture and large dimensions; belonging to the Theraphosidae family and often encountered in tropical environments; often misunderstood as harmful, though it poses little threat to humans

Etymology: Southern Italian villagers long believed that a spider's bite could drive its victim into a frenzy of dancing, and the spider took its name from the place where that belief was centered. "Tarantola" comes from Taranto, the port city in Apulia that the Romans called Tarentum. The spider is "Lycosa tarantula", a wolf spider native to the region. The fast dance said to cure the bite, the tarantella, takes its name from the same city. The bite is painful but not dangerous to healthy adults, so the dancing was a folk remedy for a harmless animal's reputation rather than a medical cure. English borrowed "tarantula" from Italian, and English speakers later applied it to the large, hairy spiders of the Americas. Those spiders are not closely related to the Italian wolf spider, so the English word now names a different group of animals than the one it was first given for.

Synonyms: spider, arachnid