quarantine

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A period when a person or animal is kept away from others to stop a disease from spreading.

   The travellers were placed in quarantine for two weeks.

2. 2
   verb

   To keep a person or animal isolated to prevent a disease from spreading.

   The sick birds were quarantined to protect the rest of the flock.

From Medieval Latin quarentena and quarentīna (“40-day period, Lent”) via Middle English quarentine, Norman quarenteine, French quarenteine, and Italian quarantina, via proposed Late Latin *quaranta + -ēna (forming distributive adjectives), from Latin quadrāgintā (“four tens, 40”). In reference to French politics, calque of French quarantaine after edicts of Louis IX. In reference to a severance of political relations, popularized by the Roosevelt administration's 1937 approach to the Axis powers and the later Kennedy administration's 1962 approach to Cuba during the missile crisis.

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