Do you like dancing? I do, but I’m selective in who I dance with or in front of. For some people, dancing is their life. They may be professionals or weekend dance floor warriors. For others, however, tarantism goes a one-two-three step further (mind the slight waltz pun).
Meaning: a medical condition originally treated by hysterical dancing, now it is the scientific term for an uncontrollable urge to dance.
Origin: some claim that tarantism came from the bite of the tarantula spider. The “illness” was particularly noted around the Italian city of Taranto between the 15th and 17th centuries, where people afflicted with tarantism would “dance off” the tarantula venom in long, energetic dancing bouts. The tarantella, a Southern Italian folk dance, may have come about from this cure.
Example: “My daughter is suffering from a severe case of tarantism—poor girl hasn’t stopped dancing since last night.”
There has been a lot of scientific research on tarantism over the decades, but the full history of the phenomenon is beyond the scope of this post. What I like to take out of it is that it has given us a wonderfully upbeat music style in the form of the tarantella. Just keep the tarantulas away from me, though.