Also 7 quarantene, 8 -in, 7–8 quarentine. [In sense 1 ad. med.L. quarentēna; in sense 2 prob. ad. It. quarant-, quarentina, f. quaranta forty.
The source of the -ine spelling in sense 1 is not clear: in the Stasyons of Jerusalem (Horstm., Altengl. Leg., Neue F., 365) the form Quaryntyne (rhyming with wyne) is used to render med.L Quarentena, the name given to the desert where Christ fasted for forty days. In sense 1 the prevailing form in 17–18th c. was quarentine, while quarantine has always been the usual form in sense 2.]
1. Law. A period of forty days during which a widow, entitled to dower, had the right to remain in the chief mansion-house of her deceased husband; hence, the right of a widow to remain in the house during this period.
1609. Skene, Reg. Maj., 56 (Acts Robt. III., c. 20). Anent widowes, quha … can not haue their quarantene without pley.
1628. Coke, On Litt., 32 b. If she marry within the forty days she loseth her quarentine.
1767. Blackstone, Comm., II. 135. These forty days are called the widow’s quarentine.
1865. Nichols, Britton, II. 247. Some other decent house shall be provided for their dwelling, where they may keep their quarantine.
2. A period (orig. of forty days) during which persons who might serve to spread a contagious disease are kept isolated from the rest of the community; esp. a period of detention imposed on travellers or voyagers before they are allowed to enter a country or town, and mix with the inhabitants; commonly, the period during which a ship, capable of carrying contagion, is kept isolated on its arrival at a port. Hence, the fact or practice of isolating such persons or ships, or of being isolated in this way.
1663. Pepys, Diary, 26 Nov. Making of all ships coming from thence … to perform their ‘quarantine for thirty days,’ as Sir Richard Browne expressed it … contrary to the import of the word (though, in the general acceptation, it signifies now the thing, not the time spent in doing it).
1691. Luttrell, Brief Rel. (1857), II. 185. Those that come from Naples … are obliged to perform a quarantine before they come to Rome, because of the plague in that Kingdom.
1722. De Foe, Plague (1884), 204. The Family were oblig’d to begin their Quarantine anew.
1799. E. Stanley, in A. Duncan, Nelson (1806), 112. Having finished their quarantine of thirteen days.
1836. Marryat, Midsh. Easy, xlii. As soon as their quarantine at the Mother-bank was over, they disembarked.
1859. Jephson, Brittany, vi. 77. The lepers often sought a voluntary death as the only escape from their perpetual quarantine.
1867. Standard, 6 Aug., 6/2. A Royal order has been issued imposing forty days’ quarantine upon all arrivals in Spanish ports from Algeria, Morocco, and the Roman States.
b. fig. Any period, instance, etc., of detention or seclusion compared to the above. † Free quarantine, exemption from quarantine.
a. 1680. Butler, Rem. (1759), I. 209. Where she denies Admission, to intrude … Unless they have free Quarentine from her.
1742. Young, Nt. Th., VII. 1046. Deists! perform your quarentine; and then Fall prostrate, ere you touch it, lest you die.
1855. Motley, Dutch Rep., II. i. (1866), 132. Nor could bigotry devise an effective quarantine to exclude the religious pest which lurked in every bale of merchandise.
c. A place where quarantine is kept or enforced.
1847. Emerson, Poems, Monadnoc, Wks. (Bohn), I. 435. His quarantines and grottos, where He slowly cures decrepit flesh.
1892. Stevenson, Across the Plains, 171. Somnolent Inverkeithing, once the quarantine of Leith.
3. A period of forty days, in other connections than the above; a set of forty (days).
1639. Fuller, Holy War, III. xxii. 147. When their quarantine, or fourty dayes service, was expired.
1722. De Foe, Plague (1756), 235. Not a Quarentine of Days only, but Soixantine, not only 40 Days but 60 Days or longer.
1883–97. Catholic Dict., 772/1. Indulgences of seven years and seven quarantines are often granted for certain devotions.
4. attrib. (sense 2), as quarantine camp, flag, hospital, law, officer, regulation, station, etc.
1805. Med. Jrnl., XVII. 507. The recent extension of the quarantine laws.
1841. Penny Cycl., XIX. 193/2. The most important disease, with reference to quarantine regulations, is the plague of the Levant. Ibid., 195/1. A quarantine station on a land-frontier.
1861–2. G. A. Spottiswoode, in Vac. Tour., 87. Accommodation … for the director or quarantine-officer.
1871. Tyndall, Fragm. Sc. (1879), I. vi. 200. The yellow quarantine flag was hoisted.
