Origin of Quarantine

Quarantine

Quarantine might not be a word that is used by most people everyday but it is a word with a very long history and someday could be much more commonly used. It originated as far back as the 9th century and its history includes Latin, English, French, Italian, Portuguese, and some languages that I’ve never heard of such as Occitan.

It can be hard to pin down exactly where the word quarantine originated but it is possible to narrow it down to a few different possibilities. There have been a few different ways of spelling quarantine over the years some of which are quarentena, quryntyne, and quarantine. The original Latin root of the word is quattuor, which means “four” this makes sense when you know that many of the meanings of the word quarantine have to do with forty days, which is something I will go to in further detail now.

The original use, quarentena, is post-classical Latin and comes from the Bible, in the 1400s the church used it to refer to the place where Jesus fasted in the desert for forty days and nights and later the word would be used in similar circumstances such as when someone is fasting or seeking penance.

Then over time it began to refer to other situations that lasted for forty days, one being quarentina, “a period of forty days during which a widow who is entitled to a dower is supposed to be assigned her dower, and has the right to remain in her deceased husband's chief dwelling.” (OED) This originated from 13th-14th century Britain.

The French word quarantaine has yet another meaning and refers to the amount of time, 40 days, during which people were isolated to prevent the spread of contagious diseases, which is where the current use of the word originates from. Mostly this isolation was used on newly arrived travelers specifically around the time of the Black Plague. Nowadays obviously it still refers to keeping people isolated to prevent the spread of contagious diseases but forty days is no longer relevant to how long...