tarantism
English
Etymology
From Italian tarantismo, from Taranto, the Italian city where the diagnosis was first made.
Pronunciation
Noun
tarantism (usually uncountable, plural tarantisms)
- An extreme urge to dance, popularly thought to have been caused by the bite of a tarantula and prevalent in southern Italy in the 15th through 17th centuries.
- Synonyms: choreomania, dancing mania
- 1835, James Johnson, The Medico-chirurgical Review, page 53:
- 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, […]
- 2012, Hélène Neveu Kringelbach, Jonathan Skinner, Dancing Cultures: Globalization, Tourism and Identity in the Anthropology of Dance, Berghahn Books (→ISBN), page 60:
- The position depicted is often seen to characterize rituals of tarantism, used for centuries in southern Italy and elsewhere to treat victims of the tarantula's bite, expressing personal and social crises (De Martino 2005).
Translations
an extreme urge to dance thought to have been caused by the bite of a tarantula
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