| 释义 |
tarantula|təˈræntjʊlə|
Also 6 tarentula, 7 -entola, tarantule.
[a. med.L. tarantula (Onomast. Lat. Græc.), It. tarantola, f. Taranto a town in modern Apulia:—L. Tarentum, ad. Gr. τάρας (τάραντα). Cf. F. tarentule (16th c. in Littré; in OF. only tarente).]
1. a. A large wolf-spider of Southern Europe, Lycosa tarantula (formerly Tarantula Apuliæ), named from the town in the region where it is commonly found, whose bite is slightly poisonous, and was fabled to cause tarantism.
1561T. Hoby tr. Castiglione's Courtyer i. (1577) C v b, Them that are bitten with a Tarrantula. [margin] A kind of spiders, which being diuers of nature cause diuers effectes, some after their biting fal a singing, some laugh [etc.]. 1584Lyly Sappho iv. iii, I was stung with the flye Tarantula. 1592Greene Philom. (1615) G iij b, Such as are stung by the Tarentula, are best cured by Musicke. 1601R. Johnson Kingd. & Commw. (1603) 113 In this countrey is bred the Tarantola, whose venom is expelled with the fire and musick. 1630J. Taylor (Water P.) Bawd Wks. I ij/1 Saint Vitus or Vitellus,..an excellent patron or proctor to cure those that are bitten of a Spider called Tarrantulla, or Phallanx. 1658J. Rowland Moufet's Theat. Ins. 1061 All those that are stung with the Tarantula, dance so well, as if they were taught to dance, and sing as well as if they were musically bred. 1711Let. to Sacheverel 20 Such a Frenzy ran thro the Nation, as if they had been all bitten with Tarantulas. 1771D. Cirillo in Ann. Reg. 85/1 Several experiments have been tried with the Tarantula; and neither men nor animals, after the bite, have had any other complaint, but a very trifling inflammation upon the part. 1861Hulme tr. Moquin-Tandon ii. v. ii. 263 The Common Tarantula..is about an inch in length... A number of fabulous tales, all of them equally absurd, have been related of the Tarantula.
b. Popularly applied to other noxious spiders, esp. to the great hairy spiders of the genus Mygale, natives of the warmer parts of America.
1794Morse Amer. Geog. 597 Scorpions and tarantulas are found here [Dutch Guiana] of a large size and great venom. 1834Pringle Afr. Sk. ii. 142 The terror of snakes, scorpions, tarantulas, and other noxious creatures of the African clime. 1871Kingsley At Last xvii, The chief engineer exhibited a live ‘Tarantula’, or bird-catching spider. 1893K. A. Sanborn Truthf. Wom. S. California 107 Tarantulas never come out at night... Mr. Wakely, who has caught more of these spiders than any living man, does not seem to dread the job in the least.
†c. By confusion, mistaken for or applied to some (supposed) venomous reptile: see quots. Obs.[1598Florio, Tarantola, a serpent called an eft or an euet, some take it to be a flye whose sting is..deadly, and nothing but diuers sounds of musicke can cure the patient. Also a fish so called.] 1615G. Sandys Trav. 249 Hereabout..are great store of Tarantulas: a serpent peculiar to this countrey. 1616Bullokar Eng. Expos., Tarantula, a little beast like a Lizard, hauing spots in his necke like starres. 1753Chambers Cycl. Supp., Tarantula, in zoology, a name given by the Italians to a peculiar species of lizard. [1896List Anim. Zool. Soc. 577 Tarentola mauritanica..Moorish Gecko.] 2. Contextually, The bite of the tarantula; hence, erroneously, = tarantism.
a1586Sidney Arcadia i. ix. (1590) 38 b, This word, Louer, did not lesse pearce poore Pyrocles, then the right tune of musicke toucheth him that is sick of the Tarantula. 1633G. Herbert Temple, Dooms-day ii, Peculiar notes and strains Cure Tarantulaes raging pains. 1651–3Jer. Taylor Serm. for Year I. xix. 250 He dies with a Tarantula, dancing and singing till he bowes his neck, and kisses his bosome with the fatall noddings and declensions of death.
fig.1828Lights & Shades II. 278 My wife's tarantula is never cured, her fingers are never out of her harpsichord.
3. fig. from 1 and 2.
1608Middleton Trick to Catch Old One i. i, Hence, courtesan, round-webb'd tarantula. 1652Urquhart Jewel Wks. (1834) 280 Stung with the tarantula of a preposterous ambition. 1666R. Wilde Poems (1870) 103 May he resume King David's harp, and play The tarantule of discontent away. 1685Answ. Dk. Buckhm. on Lib. Consc. 4 Stung with the Tarantula of his Paper, which may make me dance and caper. 1721Prior Dial. Dead (1907) 268 You find others bit with the same Tarantula. 1837Carlyle Fr. Rev. II. i. vi. (Je le jure), Saw the sun ever such a swearing people? Have they been bit by a swearing tarantula?
¶4. Erroneously for tarantella, the dance.
1698Fryer Acc. E. India & P. 111 They labour as much as a Lancashire Man does at Roger of Coverly, or the Tarantula of their Hornpipe. 1865Daily Tel. 14 Dec. 7/3 All the dances of the civilised world, from the tarantula to the trois temps.
5. attrib. and Comb., as tarantula bite, tarantula dance, tarantula dancer, tarantula spider, tarantula sting, etc.; tarantula-stung adj.; tarantula-hawk, -killer, any of several species of spider wasp of the genus Pepsis that occur in the south-western U.S. and kill tarantulas; tarantula-juice U.S. slang, inferior whisky.
1647Harington in Nugæ Ant. (1779) II. 92 We grasp but airy blisses, and thus, tarantula-stung, dye amidst laughing fits. 1688R. Holme Armoury ii. 215/2 The Tarantula Spider..of Apulia..hath only six legs, and a stretched out tail. 1833–5Babington tr. Hecker's Epidemics ii. (1859) 110 The excitement which the Tarantula dancers felt at the sight of anything with metallic lustre. 1861Harper's Mag. Jan. 147/2 Little to drink, except old-fashioned tarentula-juice, ‘warranted to kill at forty paces’. 1867Amer. Naturalist I. 137 The large, red-winged ‘Tarantula Killer’..is, as far as I know, the largest of the dauber group. 1878B. F. Taylor Between Gates 198 The tarantula hawk..pounces upon his victim and makes a needle-cushion of him. 1899D. Sharp in Camb. Nat. Hist. VI. iii. 105 P[epsis] formosus, Say, is called in Texas the tarantula-killer; according to Buckley, its mode of attack on the huge spider is different from that made use of by its European ally. 1902Westm. Gaz. 12 Aug. 10/1 In Orsuna [Spain]..there is a ‘Guild of Tarantula-players’..who earn considerable fees by sending round their members to heal the sufferers from the tarantula bite. 1932Sun (Baltimore) 8 June 9/1 A large wasp, known..as a ‘tarantula hawk’, was victor over a tarantula in a battle. 1939C. W. Towne Her Majesty Montana 38 In the saloons, poisonous liquors are vended to all comers under the name of ‘tangleleg’, ‘forty-rod’, ‘lightning’, ‘Tarantula-juice’, etc. 1980F. H. Wagner Wildlife of Deserts 148 Formidable as the tarantula is, it has its own enemies. The large tarantula hawk wasp (Pepsis) feeds the spiders to its young.
Hence taˈrantular, taˈrantulary, taˈrantulous adjs., of or pertaining to the tarantula (in quots. fig.); taˈrantulate [cf. It. tarantolato], † taˈrantulize vbs., trans. to affect with tarantism; taˈrantulism = tarantism.
1857Chamb. Jrnl. VIII. 227/1 Seized with the *tarentular phrensy.
1781E. Poulter Peripatetics 14 In Bath..Perpetual Dancing's our disorder here. Gronovius proves them, to the plainest sense, Under *Tarantulary influence.
1737M. Green Spleen 146 Motions unwill'd its powers have shown *Tarantulated by a tune.
1774‘Joel Collier’ (Bicknell) Mus. Trav. 14, I drove away the evil spirit, and cured her of her *tarantulism that night.
1652Benlowes Theoph. iii. lix. 44 In Saul, disguis'd When Satan oft *Tarantuliz'd, The Psalming Harp was 'bove thy swaying Scepter priz'd.
1895Lit. World 23 Aug. 141/1 The reputation..will survive the *tarantulous bites of envious detractors. |