“Word Nerd Wednesday” is a weekly series that uses language to help us think differently and solve old problems in new ways.
“Quarantine” comes from the French word for 40 (quarante).
It was first used in the 1600s to describe the 40 days authorities kept a ship in port if they thought it carried a new disease that might spread. (Source: Merriam Webster).
If we tweak the word to match our current 14-day isolation period it’s “quatorzine.” (Fourteen in French is “quatorze”.)
Somehow I don’t think the trend will catch on, but who knows.
