quarantine
/ˈkwɔɹ.ən.tin/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.64 in modern English
19
Scrabble Score
10
Letters
3
Syllables
8
Unique Chars
Meaning
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.
Countable; Uncountable
noun
A similar period, instance, or state of rigidly enforced or self-enforced detention or isolation.
Countable; Uncountable
noun
A period of time where people are not allowed to leave their homes to contain the spread of an infectious disease.
Colloquial; Countable; Uncountable
Example Sentences
- "Now the Question seems to lye thus, where lay the Seeds of the Infection all this while? How came it to stop so long, and not stop any longer? Either the Distemper did not come immediately by Contagion from Body to Body, or if it did, then a Body may be capable to continue infected, without the Disease discovering itself, many Days, nay Weeks together, even not a Quarantine of Days only, but Soixantine, not only 40 Days but 60 Days or longer."
- "Querentyne is where a man dyeth seisyd of a maner place and other landis where of the wyfe ought to be indowed, than the woman shall hold the maner place by .xl. days within which tyme her dower shalbe to her assyned."
- "Quarantain of the King, is a Truce of forty Days appointed by S. Louis; during which it was expressly forbid to take any Revenge of the Relation or Friends of People."
- "Forty days, called the King's quarantain, were allowed the friends or relations of a principal in a private war to grant or find security."
- "The tourists were put in quarantine to ensure none of them would be able to spread the plague."
- "From Toulon... Our Gallyes which were upon the point of finishing their Quarantaine, and entering into this Port, have been hindred from it by th'arrival of three others that were out a roaming."
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.
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: quarentena, quarentine, quarenteine, quarantina, *quaranta, quadrāgintā
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈkwɔɹ.ən.tin/
- British English: /ˈkwɒɹ.ən.tiːn/
Usage
Subject
Wiktionary places this term in Medicine.
Inflected Forms
quarantines (plural)
quarentine (alternative, obsolete)
quarantin (alternative, obsolete)
quaranteen (alternative, obsolete)
quarantain (alternative, obsolete)
quarantaine (alternative, obsolete)
quarrentine (alternative, obsolete)
quarantene (alternative, obsolete)
quarentene (alternative, obsolete)
quarentyne (alternative, obsolete)
querentyne (alternative, obsolete)
quarantines (present, singular)
Derived Forms
Phrases
community quarantine
free quarantine
K-Quarantine
quarantine-breaking
quarantine flag
quarantine ground
quarantine kennel
quarantine officer
Synonyms
lockdown
stay-at-home order
isolate more generally
restrict
Mount of Temptation
lazaret
lazaretto
lazar house