The word quarantine along with covid-19 is the most used this year. Unfortunately it's not a fashionable one made up by influencers to look and sound cool. It is used out of necessity, due to this crazy pandemic that is creating a new reality, a new life for us, a life that is far from ideal for many.
Quarantena
The word is not new, actually it's a very old one and comes from quarantena, meaning "forty days", used in the 14th–15th-centuries Venetian language. It appeared out of necessity obviously.
Those days transportation was made mostly by ships as that was the only way they know. With ships came rats and diseases as well and if you think of what level medicine was at, you know any disease could kill you.
So what did they do? They quarantined ships for forty days before letting them close to shore, to be sure to limit the spread of diseases like plague and others.
So the word comes quarantena means forty days and means the quarantine lasted forty days. Imagine staying quarantined for a month and a week as a protective measure. I guess we're lucky the quarantine is only 14 days now and if everything goes well, you're (kind of) free.
This however was a mild protective measure, compared to those they used during the plague. If you got the plague, you risked to be locked in your house and left there to die. They were blocking people inside by nailing the door and condemning you to die as no one could survive without medical help and food.
Modern Times
When you think of those old times, how the plague and other diseases killed millions, you think thank God medicine is evolving and we know a lot since then. This is true and I'm really grateful for that but as you can see, there are things we still have no clue about and can't cure, no matter how advanced everything is compared to what they were using those days. A pandemic caused by covid-19 can change the word and our life forever.
Looks like quarantine is never going out of style, it is effective in most of the cases and used still.