Can anyone really wish to know more about that strange, ill-defined space to which we at times retreat during a pandemic? These past many months nearly all of us have grown more intimately acquainted with the term “quarantine,” whether indirectly or through our personal experience of self-imposed confinement. But inquiring minds – some of them at least – would love nothing more than to learn more about the fascinating history of this word. In English “quarantine” of course describes both an action (something a person does) as well as a place – a room or similar enclosure where someone remains sequestered from others.
But might one not also quarantine in a very different sort of space, say, in the wilderness? As it happens, the origins of “quarantine” can be traced to the word quarentina in medieval Latin, which is a corruption of its classical ancestors quadraginta (forty) and quadragesima (fortieth). As these terms refer to the number forty, early on in the Christian west they accrued religious significance, largely because the New Testament gospels record Jesus of Nazareth as having spent forty days fasting in the wilderness (cf. Matt. 4:1-11). This is why the term Quadragesima came to describe the Christian celebration of Lent, a period of fasting that spans forty days. When near the end of the Middle Ages, the word “quarantine” entered the English language, the connection to the gospel narratives was expressed in one text as follows: “Byyonde ys a wyldernys of quarentyne, wher Cryst wyth fastyng hys body dyd pyne [beyond is a wilderness of quarantine, where Christ pained his body with fasting].”
Meanwhile, we find a connection between this use of the word and the later association of quarantine with a public health measure to limit the spread of disease. After all, withdrawing from social interactions, as when one fasts, also helps to prevent the spread of disease. We might still wonder, however, exactly when and how this word came to have the meaning that it carries today. While it is unclear exactly when the use of “quarantine” to a describe a person’s or group’s time of isolation for the purpose of preventing the spread of disease first emerged, we do see this meaning fairly early, sometime during the middle decades of the seventeenth century, around 1650 or so. There is in fact a fascinating moment in William Shakespeare’s play Romeo and Juliet (ca. 1596). Near the end of the play Friar John explains that he spent a period of time in quarantine, though he doesn’t use that word.
Going to find a barefoot brother out – One of our order – to associate me Here in this city visiting the sick, And finding him, the searchers of the town, Suspecting that we both were in a house Where the infectious pestilence did reign, Sealed up the doors, and would not let us forth, So that my speed to Mantua there was stayed. (Romeo and Juliet, Act 5.2.5-12)
Neither here nor in later, seventeenth-century references to quarantining do we find a consistent connection with the number forty, and for this reason we might suspect that those who were at risk of spreading plague – and early modern England certainly experienced its fair share of outbreaks – did not necessarily have to spent an entire forty days in isolation. It is likely that “quarantine” soon became a generic description of this public health measure, and lost its direct connection with that period of forty days. And that’s of course still the case today!
What’s the word is a new occasional series produced by the Murray State University Department of English and Philosophy that explores issues of the English language that are popping up in contemporary conversations.
