Etymology Explorer › English

Where does “tarantula” come from?

Tarantula comes from Old Italian tarantola, derived from the city of Taranto in Old Italian.

tarantula (English): Any of the large, hairy New World spiders...

Definitions

  1. Any of the large, hairy New World spiders...

Ancestry of “tarantula”, step by step

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1Medieval Latintarantula—
2Italiantarantolatarantula
3ItalianTaranto—
4LatinTarentumLatin name of the town
5Ancient GreekΤάρᾱςTarās; Greek name of the town
6Illyriandarandosoak

Words derived from “tarantula”

  • tarantulalike
Every word from Illyrian darandos →