# Quarantine



## Foraneo

Now that the word quarantine is so much in vogue, I was thinking that for us, Spanish speakers, "cuarentena" has total logic, since it stems from "cuarenta" (40). Since that was the number of days  commonly used as isolation at the past. In English, on the other hand, there is no relationship between "quarantine" & "forty". 
Well...  could we know how to say quarantine in your native language and whether or not it relates to the number 40;  or maybe refers to another number... or none at all?


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## merquiades

English speakers are not at all aware of the etymology of this word and as such do not associate it at all to the number 40.   Therefore, they do not even have a clue that traditionally lockdown was for 40 days.  We just know that the word means the sick are put away, isolated from others until they convalesce. It didn't usually mean put the healthy away to keep them from getting sick.  Quarantine is a learnèd word that you pick up later in life probably from a book or health class, though I bet children are learning it quite young nowadays.  For some reason, I associated it to the drug Quinine, the malaria remedy, as I thought it was administered to people undergoing quarantine. No, there is no other word for that.  An English speaker could easily say "the quarantine lasted 40 days,  or 30 or 80."

In French the connection to 40 is even more apparent.  Quarantaine exactly means about 40,  as in une quarantaine de jours,  about 40 days.  As the suffix -aine is added to a number to make it a noun,  I have heard people change the number from 40 to something else.  For instance, some people have used quatorzaine for the present situation (14 days) as this current lockdown is supposed to last 14 days.


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## Foraneo

merquiades said:


> English speakers are not at all aware of the etymology of this word and as such do not associate it at all to the number 40.


Interesting to know. I imagined it, although I know that this is not the case with the English speakers from WR, who are more educated and more interested in other languages than the average natives. Anyway, though I don't know Latin, I guess it might stem from it.


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## Awwal12

Foraneo said:


> Well...  could we know how to say quarantine in your native language and whether or not it relates to the number 40


Rus. карантин (karantín), ultimately from French or, possibly, Italian. Its sole meaning is "quarantine" in the medical sense.


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## Foraneo

So also in Russian you take the base of the same name.  This is something I didn't expected really.


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## bearded

in Italian it's _quarantena _from 'quaranta' (=40), and it's of course clear to everyone here that it's a forty-day period, at least originally.  However we, too, often use it in the meaning of  ''isolation'', which can actually last for more or less than 40 days.


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## Perseas

Foraneo said:


> Well...  could we know how to say quarantine in your native language and whether or not it relates to the number 40;  or maybe refers to another number... or none at all?


Καραντίνα [karandína] in Greek, from Italian quarantina.
No reference to numbers. (Btw. 40 in Greek is saránda).

@bearded 
My etymological dictionary says that Italian 'quarantena' is the contemporary spelling.


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## bearded

Perseas said:


> Italian 'quarantena' is the contemporary spelling.


That's correct. In old Italian it was _quarantina _(and we still say e.g. _una quarantina di persone _for ''about 40 persons''.
Etimologia : quarantena;


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## JoMe

Hebrew: קרנטינה "qarantina" (sic) from Italian, usually with narrower sense of quarantine for animals / plants imported from abroad, to ensure they're not infected.

There are several Hebrew alternatives for lockdown as of #coronavirus.

Either way, no relation to number 40 or any number.


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## jazyk

Forty is quarenta in Portuguese, and quarantine is quarentena. That's why I always think something is off when I hear or have to say uma quarentana de duas semanas, a two-week quarantine.


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## AndrasBP

Foraneo said:


> So also in Russian you take the base of the same name. This is something I didn't expected really.


The word has become an international term which seems to have been adopted by all European languages. The etymology, however, is not transparent for non-Romance speakers.

(Hungarian: *karantén*)


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## Foraneo

AndrasBP said:


> The word has become an international term which seems to have been adopted by all European languages. The etymology, however, is not transparent for non-Latin speakers.
> 
> (Hungarian: *karantén*)


Yes, that's what I'm finding out about right now. I expected similarity in Latin-derived languages, of course.  But I'm surprised to find it also in  non-Latin languages. You always learn something new in WR; even from traumatic situations like this one. 
Anyway, I bet that in Asian languages this etymology is lost.  Will I be right?


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## nimak

In *Macedonian*:

*карантин* (karantín) [karan'tin] _m. "quarantine"_

*самоизолација* (samoizolácija) [samɔ.izɔ'ɫat͡sija] _f. "self-isolation"_


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## Welsh_Sion

More often than not, Welsh people would use, '*cwarantin*' , with the stress (irregularly) on the first syllable.

However, I found two older words: *deugeinnydd prawf  *(2 x 20 + Nasal Mutation + 'day' + 'test') and *deugeinddydd prawf* (2 x 20 + 'day' + 'test').


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## Circunflejo

Foraneo said:


> Anyway, I bet that in Asian languages this etymology is lost. Will I be right?


It seems to have the same etymology in Indonesian, Malaysian, Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Uzbek, Persian… But I'm sure there'll be Asian languages using a word with a different etymology.


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## jazyk

It is 検疫 (ken'eki) in Japanese. The first character means examination, and the second one means epidemic.


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## Foraneo

Circunflejo said:


> It seems to have the same etymology in Indonesian, Malaysian, Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Uzbek, Persian… But I'm sure there'll be Asian languages using a word with a different etymology.


Well...It seems we find out one with different etymology:


jazyk said:


> It is 検疫 (ken'eki) in Japanese.


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## Circunflejo

Foraneo said:


> It seems we find out one with different etymology:


No surprise there!

It's not my native tongue so I could be wrong but in Basque it's berrogeialdi (berrogei=40 aldi=period). As you can see, it relates with 40 but not with Latin.


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## momai

Arabic at least doesn't use this word. We use حجر صحي which roughly translates into medical isolation. So no numbers only a description of the method.


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## merquiades

bearded said:


> That's correct. In old Italian it was _quarantina _(and we still say e.g. _una quarantina di persone _for ''about 40 persons''.
> Etimologia : quarantena;


Thanks for the information.  I was wondering what the exact source of the English word was as it's not _quarantaine, cuarentena, quarantena_....  so quarantine is old word indeed taken from an older version of Italian.


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## Ben Jamin

In Polish it is kwarantanna, which for older people familiar with romance languages ( Latin, French, Italian) can easily be falsely associated with quadraginta anni (forty years).


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## Olaszinhok

Ben Jamin said:


> kwarantanna


Is it pronounced as in Italian or English kw or as in German kv and how about the geminate n? Just out of curiosity….


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## Perseas

Olaszinhok said:


> Is it pronounced like in Italian or English kw or like in German kv […]


It seems that the pronunciation of German "Quarantäne" is an exception.
Here it says [ka…].


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## Piotr_WRF

Olaszinhok said:


> Is it pronounced like in Italian or English kw or like in German kv and how about the geminate n? Just out of curiosity….


It's pronounced as _kf_, and the double _n_ is indeed geminated.


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## Olaszinhok

Perseas said:


> It seems that the pronunciation of German "Quarantäne" is an exception.
> Here it says [ka…].


I see, thank you  



Piotr_WRF said:


> It's pronounced as _kf_, and the double _n_ is indeed geminated



Thank you.


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## Foraneo

momai said:


> Arabic at least doesn't use this word. We use حجر صحي which roughly translates into medical isolation.


 I have no idea how its pronunciation looks like


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## Stoggler

Foraneo said:


> I have no idea how its pronunciation looks like



Tap on the separate words, there is a link to each to Wiktionary with a sound file on how each is pronounced.


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## Foraneo

Ouhhh...I didn't know. Thank you Stoggler


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## berndf

bearded said:


> That's correct. In old Italian it was _quarantina _(and we still say e.g. _una quarantina di persone _for ''about 40 persons''.
> Etimologia : quarantena;


Same with French _quarantaine_ from which the modern word is derived (_une quarantaine de persons_).


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## marrish

In Urdu it's قرنطینہ /*q*aran*t*īna(h)/ and it's been claimed its etymology is Italian, so it seems consistent with what has been said above about old Italian. I'm wondering what route it took to make its way into Urdu? The spelling is kind of 'Arabicized', but that doesn't have to necessarily mean anything.


JoMe said:


> Hebrew: קרנטינה "qarantina" (sic) from Italian,


Looks like Hebrew and Urdu have the same word 


> "قرنطینہ اطالوی زبان کے لفظ quaranta giorni سے نکلا ہے جس کا مطلب ہے چالیس دن". "*
> _Qarantīna originated from the word quaranta giorni of the Italian language, which means forty days._


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## Ben Jamin

Olaszinhok said:


> Is it pronounced as in Italian or English kw or as in German kv and how about the geminate n? Just out of curiosity….


It is pronounced kvarantanna, med vowels like in Italian, and geminate n. "W" is always pronounced as "v" in Polish, just like in German.


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## Penyafort

No surprise in Catalan. _*Quarantena*_, from _quaranta _(40) + -_ena _(suffix).

In Catalan, _quarantè _and _quarantena _are the ordinal masculine and feminine adjectives for 40th , a _quarantena _also being a group of forty things.


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## Piotr_WRF

Ben Jamin said:


> It is pronounced kvarantanna, med vowels like in Italian, and geminate n. "W" is always pronounced as "v" in Polish, just like in German.


<v> in German is always devoiced, pronounced /f/, while <w> in Polish can be either voiced /v/ or unvoiced /f/, depending on what sound i.e. letter it accompanies. Polish has some complex devoicing rules, for example, in pol. _woda_ (eng. _water_), the <w> is voiced, i.e. /v/, but in _kwarantanna_, it is unvoiced, i.e. /f/, because of the unvoiced <k>.


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## berndf

Piotr_WRF said:


> <v> in German is always devoiced, pronounced /f/


No, it depends on the etymology of the word. In _Vater_ and _Veilchen_, the <v> is voiceless (native and old loan) but in _Vase_ it is voiced (more recent loan). But that was not the issue. Ben said the <w> was pronounced [v] in German and that is correct. The cluster <qu-> is normally [kv-] but in _Quarantäne_ it is [k-] because it is a more recent (18th century) loan from French.


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## Piotr_WRF

You're right about /v/ in loanwords in German, of course, but the real issue for me was that in Polish, <w> can have both pronunciations, depending on its position in a word.


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## Ben Jamin

berndf said:


> No, it depends on the etymology of the word. In _Vater_ and _Veilchen_, the <v> is voiceless (native and old loan) but in _Vase_ it is voiced (more recent loan). But that was not the issue. Ben said the <w> was pronounced [v] in German and that is correct. The cluster <qu-> is normally [kv-] but in _Quarantäne_ it is [k-] because it is a more recent (18th century) loan from French.


What is the normal German pronunciation of _Hanover_?


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## berndf

[ha'no:.fɐ]

BTW, the German name of the city is _Han*n*over_.


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## merquiades

berndf said:


> The cluster <qu-> is normally [kv-]


 Is this the case in all German accents/varieties?  I believe I have heard [kw] before.


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## berndf

merquiades said:


> Is this the case in all German accents/varieties?  I believe I have heard [kw] before.


In some dialects it is [kʋ-]. I have heard [kw-] as well but I wouls say it is mostly [kv-] and then [kʋ-] with [kw-] being considerably less frequent.


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## L'irlandais

In Irish Gaelic, to be in quarantine is_ bheith ar coraintín_

While 40 forty is daichead ( dhá fhichead ) or literally two score (2x 20)

So no connection between the two words.

Ellis island in NY is called :_ Oileán an Choraintín_ Quarantine Island in Irish


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## Red Arrow

*Dutch*: quarantaine
French pronunciation, no [w] or [ʋ].


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## Mahaodeh

Foraneo said:


> have


حجر = Hajr (detainment or restriction)
 صحّي = SiHHi (health)

The expression is: Hajr SiHHi and literally means "health detainment". The qualification (health) is commonly used because there could be other types of "restriction" (it's rarely used to mean detainment).


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## marrish

marrish said:


> In Urdu it's قرنطینہ /*q*aran*t*īna(h)/ and I'm wondering what route it took to make its way into Urdu? The spelling is kind of 'Arabicized', but that doesn't have to necessarily mean anything.


Provided Hebrew and Urdu share the same word and granted Arabic doesn't use it, a link language must have been (Ottoman) Turkish and Persian. @PersoLatin, do you deem Persian plausible?


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## PersoLatin

^ Yes link language to Urdu is very likely Persian.

In Persian quarantine is قرنطینه pronounced ‌qarantiné (qarantina), I don’t believe the link language is Turkish as qârântinâ would have been the expected pronunciation, so that just leaves Arabic, and I can only think that Arabic dropped قرنطینه for the current word at some point after import into Persian, maybe this can checked on the Arabic language forum.

The Persian dictionary (Dehkhoda) says the root is via French which doesn’t make sense, as neither the Persian spelling nor the pronunciation is consistent with the French version.

It is interesting that a period of 40 days is significant in Persian culture, though unrelated to quarantine, e.g. a memorial ceremony forty days after someone dies, also a 40 day period of hottest & coldest days starting at winter or summer solstice, although 45 days is more accurate.


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## Foraneo

Yesterday 50 days of lockdown were fulfilled here. Some people say: “Esto ya pasó de ser una cuarentena. Es una cincuentena” (this has passed from being a quarantine or fortieth . It's a fiftieth)

It's just that there are many spanish speakers who take the word in their literal sense and think it refers to spending 40 days locked. They don't realize that the term has been coined that way since ancient times, but today it lost its original meaning. In other words, today "quarantine" is synonymous with confinement and has nothing to do with reference to the number 40.


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