The Latin word for forty is quarantina. Does that mean we are shut-ins for fourty days?
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The Latin is Forty
- Thread starter rockytopva
- Start date
And forty nights.
I heard that our word quarantine comes from 'quarantina' because they would ask crews of ships to stay on board forty days when docking in a harbor to prevent spreading diseases from abroad. Imagine if we had done that still today? Things like COVID-19 would certainly have been more manageable, but it sure would be a pain!
I have heard an Israeli researcher has examined the COVID-19 infections in many countries and noted that it consistently peaks in six weeks (about 40 days) and declines within eight week. Regardless of quarantine or no quarantine.
I'm sorry to burst your bubble, but the Latin word for forty is quadraginta. Quarantina may be the Italian word for forty. Quarantena is the Italian word for quarantine (just looked it up).
quarantine (n.)
1660s, "period a ship suspected of carrying disease is kept in isolation," from Italian quaranta giorni, literally "space of forty days," from quaranta "forty," from Latin quadraginta"forty," which is related to quattuor "four" (from PIE root *kwetwer- "four"). So called from the Venetian policy (first enforced in 1377) of keeping ships from plague-stricken countries waiting off its port for 40 days to assure that no latent cases were aboard. Also see lazaretto. The extended sense of "any period of forced isolation" is from 1670s. -
quarantine | Origin and meaning of quarantine by Online Etymology Dictionary