Also 6 tarentula, 7 -entola, tarantule. [a. med.L. tarantula (Onomast. Lat. Græc.), It. tarantola, f. Taranto a town in modern Apulia,:—L. Tarentum, ad. Gr. Τάρας (Τάραντα). Cf. F. tarentule (16th c. in Littré; in OF. only tarente).]
1. A large wolf-spider of Southern Europe, Lycosa tarantula (formerly Tarantula Apuliæ), named from the town in the region where it is commonly found, whose bite is slightly poisonous, and was fabled to cause TARANTISM.
1561. T. Hoby, trans. Castiglione’s Courtyer, I. (1577), C v b. Them that are bitten with a Tarrantula. [margin] A kind of spiders, which being diuers of nature cause diuers effectes, some after their biting fal a singing, some laugh [etc.].
1584. Lyly, Sappho, IV. iii. I was stung with the flye Tarantula.
1592. Greene, Philom. (1615), G iij b. Such as are stung by the Tarentula, are best cured by Musicke.
1601. R. Johnson, Kingd. & Commw. (1603), 113. In this countrey is bred the Tarantola, whose venom is expelled with the fire and musick.
1630. J. Taylor (Water P.), Bawd, Wks. I ij/1. Saint Vitus or Vitellus,… an excellent patron or proctor to cure those that are bitten of a Spider called Tarrantulla, or Phallanx.
1658. J. Rowland, Moufet’s Theat. Ins., 1061. All those that are stung with the Tarantula, dance so well, as if they were taught to dance, and sing as well as if they were musically bred.
1711. Lett. to Sacheverel, 20. Such a Frenzy ran thro the Nation, as if they had been all bitten with Tarantulas.
1771. D. Cirillo in Ann. Reg., 85/1. Several experiments have been tried with the Tarantula; and neither men nor animals, after the bite, have had any other complaint, but a very trifling inflammation upon the part.
1861. Hulme, trans. Moquin-Tandon, II. V. ii. 263. The Common Tarantula … is about an inch in length…. A number of fabulous tales, all of them equally absurd, have been related of the Tarantula.
b. Popularly applied to other noxious spiders, esp. to the great hairy spiders of the genus Mygale, natives of the warmer parts of America.
1794. Morse, Amer. Geog., 597. Scorpions and tarantulas are found here [Dutch Guiana] of a large size and great venom.
1834. Pringle, Afr. Sk., ii. 142. The terror of snakes, scorpions, tarantulas, and other noxious creatures of the African clime.
1871. Kingsley, At Last, xvii. The chief engineer exhibited a live ‘Tarantula,’ or bird-catching spider.
1884. ‘An Edinburgh Lady,’ A Rapid Run to the Wild West, ii. 23–4. If you care to wage war with the tarantula he fights by springing up at you; the bite from each is intensely painful, and even dangerous if it touches an artery; its cure is whisky, but one poor man having been badly bitten, drank whisky, and died notwithstanding, but after a medical examination it was discovered that whisky was the true cause of death, and not the bite of the spider: so, readers, beware!
1893. Kate Sanborn, Truthf. Wom. S. California, 107. Tarantulas never come out at night…. Mr. Wakely, who has caught more of these spiders than any living man, does not seem to dread the job in the least.
† c. By confusion, mistaken for or applied to some (supposed) venomous reptile: see quots. Obs.
[1598. Florio, Tarantola, a serpent called an eft or an euet, some take it to be a flye whose sting is … deadly, and nothing but diuers sounds of musicke can cure the patient. Also a fish so called.]
1615. G. Sandys, Trav., 249. Hereabout … are great store of Tarantulas: a serpent peculiar to this countrey.
1616. Bullokar, Eng. Expos., Tarantula, a little beast like a Lizard, hauing spots in his necke like starres.
1753. Chambers, Cycl. Supp., Tarantula, in zoology, a name given by the Italians to a peculiar species of lizard.
[1896. List Anim. Zool. Soc., 577. Tarentola mauritanica … Moorish Gecko.]
2. Contextually, The bite of the tarantula; hence, erroneously, = TARANTISM.
a. 1586. Sidney, Arcadia, I. ix. (1590), 38 b. This word, Louer, did not lesse pearce poore Pyrocles, then the right tune of musicke toucheth him that is sick of the Tarantula.
1633. G. Herbert, Temple, Dooms-day, ii. Peculiar notes and strains Cure Tarantulaes raging pains.
1651–3. Jer. Taylor, Serm. for Year, I. xix. 250. He dies with a Tarantula, dancing and singing till he bowes his neck, and kisses his bosome with the fatall noddings and declensions of death.
fig. 1828. Lights & Shades, II. 278. My wife’s tarantula is never cured, her fingers are never out of her harpsichord.
3. fig. from 1 and 2.
1608. Middleton, Trick to Catch Old One, I. i. Hence, courtesan, round-webb’d tarantula.
1652. Urquhart, Jewel, Wks. (1834), 280. Stung with the tarantula of a preposterous ambition.
1666. R. Wilde, Poems (1870), 103. May he resume King David’s harp, and play The tarantule of discontent away.
1685. Answ. Dk. Buckhm. on Lib. Consc., 4. Stung with the Tarantula of his Paper, which may make me dance and caper.
1721. Prior, Dial. Dead (1907), 268. You find others bit with the same Tarantula.
1837. Carlyle, French Revolution, II. I. vi. (Je le jure), Saw the sun ever such a swearing people? Have they been bit by a swearing tarantula?
¶ 4. Erroneously for TARANTELLA, the dance.
1698. Fryer, Acc. E. India & P., 111. They labour as much as a Lancashire Man does at Roger of Coverly, or the Tarantula of their Hornpipe.
1865. Daily Tel., 14 Dec., 7/3. All the dances of the civilised world, from the tarantula to the trois temps.
5. attrib. and Comb., as tarantula bite, dance, dancer, spider, sting, etc.; tarantula-stung adj.; tarantula-hawk, -killer, names in Texas for a kind of wasp, Pepsis formosa.
1647. Harington, in Nugæ Ant. (1779), II. 92. We grasp but airy blisses, and thus, tarantula-stung, dye amidst laughing fits.
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, II. 215/2. The Tarantula Spider … of Apulia … hath only six legs, and a stretched out tail.
1833–5. Babington, trans. Hecker’s Epidemics, ii. (1859), 110. The excitement which the Tarantula dancers felt at the sight of anything with metallic lustre.
1899. D. Sharp, in Camb. Nat. Hist., VI. iii. 105. P[epsis] formosus, Say, is called in Texas the tarantula-killer; according to Buckley, its mode of attack on the huge spider is different from that made use of by its European ally.
1902. Westm. Gaz., 12 Aug., 10/1. In Orsuna [Spain] … there is a ‘Guild of Tarantula-players’ … who earn considerable fees by sending round their members to heal the sufferers from the tarantula bite.
Hence Tarantular, Tarantulary, Tarantulous adjs., of or pertaining to the tarantula (in quots. fig.); Tarantulate [cf. It. tarantolato), † Tarantulize vbs., trans. to affect with tarantism; Tarantulism = TARANTISM.
1857. Chamb. Jrnl., VIII. 227/1. Seized with the *tarentular phrensy.
1781. E. Poulter, Peripatetics, 14. In Bath … Perpetual Dancing ’s our disorder here. Gronovius proves them, to the plainest sense, Under *Tarantulary influence.
1737. M. Green, Spleen, 146. Motions unwill’d its powers have shown *Tarantulated by a tune.
1774. ‘Joel Collier’ (Bicknell), Mus. Trav., 14. I drove away the evil spirit, and cured her of her *tarantulism that night.
1652. Benlowes, Theoph., III. lix. 44. In Saul, disguis’d When Satan oft *Tarantuliz’d, The Psalming Harp was ’bove thy swaying Scepter priz’d.
1895. Lit. World, 23 Aug., 141/1. The reputation … will survive the *tarantulous bites of envious detractors.
