tarantula

Tarantula traces back through Medieval Latin and Old Italian tarantola to Taranto, a seaport in southern Italy, whose own name descends from Latin Tarentum and Greek Τάρᾱς, possibly rooted in an Illyrian word for 'oak.'

The word first named Lycosa tarantula, a spider common around Taranto in the Apulia region. When Spanish speakers encountered large, hairy spiders in the New World, they extended tarántula to describe them, and that transferred sense — covering the Theraphosidae family — is now the word's main modern meaning.

The name still carries its birthplace inside it: Taranto, the Italian port, and Tarentum, its ancient Latin name, are the direct source of every 'tarantula' spoken today.