编者按 从居家隔离到集体隔离，再到封城隔离，“隔离”可能是疫情发展以来出现频率最高的一个词。“隔离”一词的英文为quarantine（可作名词和动词），指对动物、人或某个地域进行检疫、隔离，比如：More than 200 patients are quarantined at home. Some cities in China are currently under quarantine . 最近广受关注的钻石公主号邮轮因有新冠病毒感染乘客，已在日本横滨港停留10天，截止本文发稿，船上已有174例确诊，人们惊呼这不正应验了quarantine一词的本义吗——原来，quarantine这个来自意大利文的词，最初就是在欧洲黑死病流行时期被用来指船只进港前的40天隔离检疫期。尽管这项措施在当时并没有起到明显的阻断疫情扩散的效果，但这个词却保留使用至今。另外，说到“武汉封城”这一人类历史上最大规模的隔离，新闻往往使用lockdown或seal off等较通俗的词，不过最专业的说法是 cordon sanitaire([kɔʁdɔ̃ sanitɛʁ], the restriction of movement of people into or out of a defined geographic area, such as a community)。请听关于quarantine的词源详解，后附录音文本，关键词汇已标红。
Quarantine , a state, period, or place of strict isolationmeant to prevent the spread of disease.
In the 14th century, the Bubonic Plague, later called "The Black Death", spread across Europe with devastatingconsequences. It's been estimatedthat the Plague decimatedat least one-third of Europe's population. In a vaineffort to stave offinfection, the Italian-speaking port city of Ragusa, in what is now Croatia, mandatedthat ships arriving from Plague-infested areas remain isolated on the water until it was deemedlikely that they weren't carrying the disease. This meant that the entire contents of a ship and all of its passengers were often forced to remain on boardfor five or six weeks before being let ashore. Though the drasticmeasure was only marginallysuccessful, it wasn't long before other port cities followed suit. In 1397, the official period of isolation imposed onships and crews was set at forty days. Although it did little to protect ports from infection, the directivestuck.
From the Italian word quaranta , meaning forty, this period of stasiswas given the name quarantine. And by the mid-1600s, the word quarantine was being used to describe any place, period, or state of isolation, plague-related or not.
Source of video: TED-Ed
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Lady (女士)
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Pants (裤子)
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