tarantella

Estimated CEFR level: C2 — Proficiency

Estimated from word frequency; not an official CEFR classification.

Definition

  1. noun music composed in six-eight time for dancing the tarantella
  2. noun a lively whirling Italian dance for two persons

Etymology

Borrowed from Italian tarantella, a diminutive of Taranto, a town in southern Italy (but popularly associated with tarantola (“tarantula”), on the belief that the dance was variously a result of, or cure for, its bite).

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