The Origin Of The Word Quarantine, I Bet You Didn't Know

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(Edited)

The word quarantine along with covid-19 is the most used this year. Unfortunately it's not a fashionable one made up by influencers to look and sound cool. It is used out of necessity, due to this crazy pandemic that is creating a new reality, a new life for us, a life that is far from ideal for many.

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Quarantena

The word is not new, actually it's a very old one and comes from quarantena, meaning "forty days", used in the 14th–15th-centuries Venetian language. It appeared out of necessity obviously.

Those days transportation was made mostly by ships as that was the only way they know. With ships came rats and diseases as well and if you think of what level medicine was at, you know any disease could kill you.

So what did they do? They quarantined ships for forty days before letting them close to shore, to be sure to limit the spread of diseases like plague and others.

So the word comes quarantena means forty days and means the quarantine lasted forty days. Imagine staying quarantined for a month and a week as a protective measure. I guess we're lucky the quarantine is only 14 days now and if everything goes well, you're (kind of) free.

This however was a mild protective measure, compared to those they used during the plague. If you got the plague, you risked to be locked in your house and left there to die. They were blocking people inside by nailing the door and condemning you to die as no one could survive without medical help and food.

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Modern Times

When you think of those old times, how the plague and other diseases killed millions, you think thank God medicine is evolving and we know a lot since then. This is true and I'm really grateful for that but as you can see, there are things we still have no clue about and can't cure, no matter how advanced everything is compared to what they were using those days. A pandemic caused by covid-19 can change the word and our life forever.

Looks like quarantine is never going out of style, it is effective in most of the cases and used still.

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8 comments
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Bang, I did it again... I just rehived your post!
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Thank you for this piece of information. I honestly never knew the origins of the word but intend to take what I have learned here and educate others when the opportunity arises. I honestly really like this piece.. Do you often write educational articles such as this one? I like things like this and go crazy for knowledge especially when it pertains to origins of words that we use often and nobody can deny that quarantine has become an everyday word... unfortunately... Whelp take care and keep up the great work!

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Thank you, you too.
It's not my plan to write educational articles, or at least not intentionally but if I came across something interesting like this, I'm writing a post as I know not many know it.
However, I believe it worth looking into the origin of words like this and learn.

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Understood. It is and interesting find to say the least.

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It sure is and I came across it accidentally, it was a documentary on Viasat History, that's where it was mentioned, and not because o the covid-19 pandemic but because it was about Venice's history.

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What's really weird is that this trending word has a lot of religious and biological background that most people don't know about, I would really like to expand on this on a post on my own, here is an example of how I would do it but of course, I would like to have your permission to do this! =)

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You don't need my permission for that. Go for it :)

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