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TARANTISM. :shrug:

 

From: wordsmith.org

 

 

This week's theme: There is a word for it.

 

tarantism (TAR-uhn-tiz-uhm) noun

 

An uncontrollable urge to dance.

 

[After Taranto, a town in southern Italy where this phenomenon was experienced

during the 15-17th centuries. It's not clear whether tarantism was the symptom

of a spider's bite or its cure, or it may have been just a pretext to dodge a

prohibition against dancing. The names of the dance tarantella and the spider

tarantula are both derived from the same place.]

 

Today's word in Visual Thesaurus: http://visualthesaurus.com/?w1=tarantism

 

-Anu Garg (garg AT wordsmith.org)

 

"The director is in a wild delirium, spinning in circles as though stricken

with tarantism, his whirring camera held at arm's length, panning,

tilting, arcing and oscillating and making other moves that have no name."

Caelum Vatnsdal; Kino Delirium: The Films of Guy Maddin; Arbeiter Ring

Publishing; 2000.

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