tarantella
[tar-uh n-tel-uh]
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noun
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.
a piece of music either for the dance or in its rhythm.
Origin of tarantella
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019
Examples from the Web for tarantella
Historical Examples of tarantella
Was there not in the air the thin sound of a reed flute playing a tarantella?
A Spirit in PrisonRobert Hichens
The tarantella then was no more than an interlude in a play.
The PrisonerAlice Brown
It wasn't the tarantella only that led him this long wandering.
The PrisonerAlice Brown
Delarey seemed to him like a tarantella in repose, if such a thing could be.
The Call of the BloodRobert Smythe Hichens
The tarantella—that was the dance of the soil here, the dance of the blood.
The Call of the BloodRobert Smythe Hichens
tarantella
noun
Word Origin for tarantella
C18: from Italian, from Taranto Taranto; associated with tarantism
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