quarantine
UK /ˈkwɒɹ.ən.tiːn/ · US /ˈkwɔɹ.ən.tin/ noun, verb, proper noun
Forms quarantines quarantining quarantined quarentine quarantin quaranteen quarantain quarantaine quarrentine quarantene quarentene quarentyne querentyne Mount Quarantine
- noun A period of 40 days, particularly
- noun (historical law) The 40-day period during which a widow is entitled to remain in her deceased husband's home while any dower is collected and returned.
- noun (historical) The 40-day period of isolation required after 1448 at Venice's lazaret to avoid renewed outbreaks of the bubonic plague and identical policies in other locations.
- noun (historical) A 40-day period formerly imposed by the French king upon warring nobles during which they were forbidden from exacting revenge or continuing to fight.
- noun A period, instance, or state of isolation from the general public or from native livestock and flora enacted to prevent the spread of any contagious disease. “The tourists were put in quarantine to ensure none of them would be able to spread the plague.”
- noun (figurative) A similar period, instance, or state of rigidly enforced or self-enforced detention or isolation.
- noun A place where such isolation is enforced, a lazaret.
- noun (colloquial) A period of time where people are not allowed to leave their homes to contain the spread of an infectious disease.
- verb (transitive) To place into isolation to prevent the spread of any contagious disease. “Venice began quarantining incoming ships for 40 days in 1448 to prevent further outbreaks of bubonic plague.”
- verb (intransitive) To enter or stay in quarantine, particularly to self-quarantine to avoid an epidemic disease. “International travelers must quarantine themselves at their own expense in a designated hotel for 14 days upon arrival.”
- verb (intransitive, obsolete) To impose a quarantine, to establish quarantine regulations.
- verb (figurative, transitive) Synonym of isolate more generally. “J.F.K. "quarantined" Cuba rather than blockading it to avoid needless escalation of the conflict.”
- verb (figurative, transitive) Synonym of restrict.
- proper noun (dated) Synonym of Mount of Temptation.
Synonyms
lazaret lazaretto lazar house lockdown stay-at-home order isolate more generally restrict Mount of Temptation
Etymology
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.
From Latin Quarantina.
Webster’s 1913
- noun A space of forty days; --used of Lent.
- noun Specifically, the term, originally of forty days, during which a ship arriving in port, and suspected of being infected a malignant contagious disease, is obliged to forbear all intercourse with the shore; hence, such restraint or inhibition of intercourse; also, the place where infected or prohibited vessels are stationed.
- verb To compel to remain at a distance, or in a given place, without intercourse, when suspected of having contagious disease; to put under, or in, quarantine.
Etymology [F. quarantaine, OF. quaranteine, fr. F. quarante forty, L. quadraginta, akin to quattuor four, and E. four: cf. It. quarantina, quarentine. See Four, and cf. Quadragesima.]
Sources: Wiktionary · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “quarantine”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details