Quarantine

The word quarantine has certainly increased in usage in the past two month. The word's origin contains a kind of message for many of us.

The word comes from the Italian quarantena, and means "forty days." It was used in the 14th-15th-century. It designated the period that all ships were required to be isolated before passengers and crew could go ashore during the Black Death plague epidemic.

The practice began as the trentino, a 30-day isolation period that began being used in 1377 in The Republic of Ragusa, Dalmatia (modern Dubrovnik in Croatia).

Today, we are hearing about two and three week isolation periods of "sheltering in" but perhaps a period of 40 days might be better.

Quarantine is not the same as medical isolation. The latter is when someone infected with a communicable disease is isolated from a healthy population. Quarantine may be used even with people who have not been confirmed to have a disease. 

A related term that I have not heard used (yet) is cordon sanitaire which is French for "sanitary cordon" meaning the restriction of movement of people into or out of a defined geographic area, such as a community, region, or country. Originally the term referred to an actual barrier used to stop the spread of infectious diseases.