[font=Times New Roman]Quarantine (Noun)[/font]
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Pronunciation: [‘kwahr-ên-teen]
Definition: A period of enforced isolation for a person, animal or object suspected of carrying a communicable disease.
Usage: The verb is the same as the noun: "My dog had to be quarantined when I moved from France to the UK." For an adjective, we use the noun attributively: "They built a quarantine facility just outside the port area." Someone or something that has been quarantined is "in quarantine." A disease that makes you liable to quarantine is said to be "quarantinable."
Suggested usage: While the SARS epidemic has brought the literal meaning of this word to the forefront of public consciousness, it can be deployed metaphorically, too: "Rupert is never invited to these meetings; I think they’re trying to quarantine his notions about corporate responsibility."
Etymology: The word comes from Venice of the Middle Ages, where ships arriving from plague spots were obliged to spend forty days (in Italian, "quaranta giorni") at anchor offshore before being permitted to land goods or people. Italian "quaranta" comes from the Latin "quadraginta," also meaning "forty," related to "quadrans," a quarter, and "quadra," a square. Here we can see the origins of our words "quadrant," "quarter," "quart," "quadrangle," and the square dance called a "quadrille." "Square" itself comes from the Latin "ex quadra." A "squadron" or "squad" originally referred to a body of soldiers formed up in a square. And a "quarry" is a place where stones are square-cut—all from the same Latin source.
—Grant Hutchison, Dundee, Scotland
