tarantula

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Archived revision by Shumkichi (talk | contribs) as of 14:04, 24 December 2019.
Jump to navigation Jump to search
See also: tarántula, tarântula, and tarantulă

English

English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia
English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia
A tarantula (Lua error in Module:taxlink at line 68: Parameter "ver" is not used by this template.)

Etymology

Via Medieval Latin, from Old Italian tarantola, named after Taranto, a seaport in southern Italy; from Latin Tarentum, from Ancient Greek Τάρᾱς (Tárās, “Tarās”); compare Modern Greek: Τάραντας (Tárantas, “Tarantas”); Tarantino Tarde; ultimately from Illyrian *darandos (“oak”).[1]
First recorded in English in the mid-16th century: usage for the New World species may have been influenced by Spanish tarántula.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /təˈɹænt͡ʃələ/
  • Audio (UK):(file)

Noun

tarantula (plural tarantulas or tarantulae)

  1. Any of the large, hairy New World spiders comprising the family Theraphosidae.
    • 1857, John Askew, A voyage to Australia and New Zealand, including a visit to Adelaide:
      Cockroaches, centipedes, tarantulas, scorpions, and mosquitoes are abundant in summer.
    • 1873 May 3, “The tarantula -- an interesting native of California”, in Friends' Intelligencer, volume 30, number 10:
      In the southern portions of the State we have met with specimens of brown tarantula weighing a full Troy ounce, but these were of unusual size. The wood tarantula is the largest of all, occasional specimens weighing an ounce and a half, inhabits dead wood, is very active on a warm day, is found of sunning himself, and is quite courageous, leaping on a large lizard, with a perfect recklessness of consequences.
  2. A species of wolf spider, Lycosa tarantula, native to southern Europe.
    • 1678, An Alphabetical Table of the Philosophical Transactions from March 6. 1665 to July 1677, T.:
      The story of the Tarantula's biting to be cured by peculiar Musick and Dancing, Examined in Calabria the proper place, and there suspected to be fabulous, n. 83, p. 4066
    • 1723, Giorgio Baglivi, “A Disseratation of the Anatomy, Bitings, and Other Effects of the venemous Spider, call'd, Tarantula”, in The Practice of Physick, page 314:
      A Tarantula is a venemous Spider, so call'd from Tarentum, an ancient City of Magna Gracia, upon the Ionian Sea. Those who are once bit by it, are never quite cur'd of the Venom; for it revives every Year, and occasions a long Series of Evils, which would be very annoying to the Patients, if they did not take due Care of their Health by Dancing and Balls.
    • 1837 February 18, “Hunting the Tarantula Spider”, in The Mirror, number 821:
      On May 7, 1812, during my stay at Valencia, in Spain, I took, without hurting him, a tarantula of tolerable size, which I imprisoned in a glass covered over with paper, in which I had made a square opening.
  3. A member of certain other groups of spiders, generally characterized by large size, hairiness, or membership with the Theraphosidae in infraorder Mygalomorphae.

Synonyms

Derived terms

Translations

References

  1. ^ “tarantula”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.

Polish

Polish Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia pl

Etymology

From French tarentule, from Italian tarantola, named after Taranto, a seaport in southern Italy; from Latin Tarentum, from Ancient Greek Τάρᾱς (Tárās, “Tarās”); ultimately from Illyrian *darandos (“oak”).

Pronunciation

Noun

tarantula f

  1. tarantula (Lycosa tarantula)

Declension

Declension of tarantula
singular plural
nominative tarantula tarantule
genitive tarantuli tarantul
dative tarantuli tarantulom
accusative tarantulę tarantule
instrumental tarantulą tarantulami
locative tarantuli tarantulach
vocative tarantulo tarantule

Further reading

Romanian

Noun

tarantula

  1. definite nominative singular of tarantulă
  2. definite accusative singular of tarantulă
Retrieved from "https://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=tarantula&oldid=58223994"