tarantism
(ˈtærəntɪz(ə)m)
Also 9 tarent-, and (in L. form) tarant-, tarentismus.
[ad. mod.L. tarantismus = It. tarantismo, F. tarentisme, from It. Taranto name of the town (see prec.); but popularly associated with tarantola the tarantula spider, whence sometimes called tarantulism.]
A hysterical malady, characterized by an extreme impulse to dance, which prevailed as an epidemic in Apulia and adjacent parts of Italy from the 15th to the 17th century, popularly attributed to the bite or ‘sting’ of the tarantula.
The dancing was sometimes held to be a symptom or consequence of the malady, sometimes practised as a sovereign cure for it.
| 1638–56 Cowley Davideis i. Notes §32 We should hardly be convinced of this Physick, unless it be in the particular cure of the Tarantism, the experiments of which are too notorious to be denyed or eluded. 1770 Phil. Trans. LX. 237 People..get a little money, by dancing when they say the tarantism begins. Ibid., In Sicily, where the summer is still warmer..the Tarantula is never dangerous, and music is never employed for the cure of the pretended tarantism. 1822–34 Good's Study Med. (ed. 4) III. 338 This form of the disease appears to be a near relation to the tarantismus of Sauvages. 1833–5 Babington tr. Hecker's Epidemics ii. (1859) 106 The origin of tarantism itself is referrible..to a period between the middle and the end of this century, and is consequently contemporaneous with that of the St. Vitus's dance (1374). 1883 Chambers's Encycl. IX. 296/2 Tarantism may be defined a leaping or dancing mania, originating in, or supposed to originate in, an animal poison... The gesticulations, contortions, and cries somewhat resembled those in St. Vitus's Dance, and other epidemic nervous diseases of the middle ages. 1883 Chamb. Jrnl. 1 Dec. 760/2 The earliest mention of tarantismus is found in the works of Nicolas Perotti, who died in 1480. |