Quarantine is one of the most representative words for 2020, according to Cambridge and Oxford Dictionaries. We’ve all heard that word over and over again on the news, and many of you might even have had to endure quarantine because of Covid-19, but do you know the history behind this word? And did you know quarantine is also related to religion? Let’s take a closer look at its meaning and evolution in time.
Meaning
Quarantine can be both a noun and a verb. As a noun, it refers to three different things:
A desert in which Christ fasted for 40 days according to the Bible
The third meaning is definitely the most used nowadays, as governments all around the world are using quarantine as a way to keep people who might have been exposed to Coronavirus away from others in order to stop the contagion. Quarantined people must stay home avoiding contacts with others, have their health conditions monitored and follow their own health department directions. This measure is usually applied to individuals who have been in close contact with somebody who's positive to COVID-19 or to travellers coming from pandemic-stricken countries. Luckily, the quarantined are supposed to stay home for 14 days, not 40 as the word may lead to think. Quarantine in the past centuries was in fact supposed to last fourty days, and quarantines which are not connected to COVID-19 can have different time spans.
Moreover, quarantine is different from isolation: the latter is in fact a measure to separate sick people with a contagious disease from people who are not sick, whereas quarantine deals with people who have not been tested yet, so they might be either positive or negative to the disease. Isolation can take much longer than a couple of weeks: it won't end until the person is tested negative to the virus.
Example #1
Example #2
Example #3
Origin and etymology
The word quarantine comes from old Venetian quarantena, literally “fourty days”, from Latin quadraginta, “fourty”, related to quattuor, “four”, whose roots are in the Proto-Indoeuropean *kwetwer-.
During the 14th century the bubonic plague was ravaging Europe, killing an estimated one-third of its population in a few years. To stop the contagion the port of Ragusa, now Dubrovnik, Croatia, controlled by the Venetians, established a law called trentino: all ships coming from places affected by the Black Death had to wait 30 days before disembarking, and no one was allowed on. With time more and more cities started adopting trentino, which after a century became quarantino. Since the second half of the 14th century ships coming from plague-stricken countries had to wait 40 days, not 30, outside Venice port to avoid latent cases to be disembarked, thus spreading the pandemic.
Why was the isolation period stretched from 30 to 40 days? Maybe because doctors thought they needed more than 30 days to prove the ship and everyone aboard to be in good health, sure, but considering we’re talking about the Middle Ages, we can’t avoid considering the weight of the number 40 when it comes to religion. Its meaning is usually related to a period of testing, trial or probation: Moses led the Hebrews into the Mount Sinai and spent there 40 years, Christ spent 40 days fasting in the wilderness on the Gebel Garantal, also known as Mount Quarantine or Mount of Temptation, and the period of Lent (Quaresima in Italian, Carême in French, both related to the Latin quadraginta) is a way for Christians to remember and honour Jesus resisting temptation by abstaining to certain pleasures and foods. Last but not least, fourty days was the period between Jesus’ resurrection and his ascension. Maybe the quarantine period was then brought to 40 days to make it look like a moment when people had to resist the temptation to get off the boat, thus spreading the infection, just like Jesus resisted the devil’s temptations.
The practice of isolating people affected by infectious diseases is much older than the Black Death, though: in the Bible there are several references to isolating people with leprosy, and hospitals called lazarettos, after Lazarus, the patron of lepers in Catholicism, were built by the first half of the 14th century in Venice. They were located outside the city center to avoid spreading the infection. When the United States was established, no big measures were taken to prevent the importation of infectious diseases, which led to continued outbreaks of yellow fever and other epidemics. In 1878 the Congress finally passed a federal quarantine legislation.
Ludwig wrap-up
Sadly, quarantine is a word we all know and use because of Coronavirus, but it has a very ancient history. It is a measure consisting in mandatory isolation for those who may threaten to spread an infectious disease because they were in contact with infected people or come from pandemic-stricken countries. Its etymology is connected to the Latin quadraginta, 40, as the days ships coming from plague-affected countries and their crews had to wait before disembarkment in order to prevent infecting the residents. This stretch of time was probably due to a parallelism with Jesus resisting the devil’s temptations on Mount Quarantine. Being quarantined really sucks, so if you’re stuck home because of Covid-19 we’re really sorry and hope everything will be back to normal soon. Well, at least you’ve got our blog to keep you company… Take care!
