In human history, the spread of infectious diseases to mass numbers of people is not uncommon. Pandemics, historians say, started when we humans began farming land and living in communities. Pandemics increased as trade between communities and nations increased.
在人类历史上，传染病在大量人群中传播并不罕见。历史学家表示，传染病始于人类开始耕种和群居的时代。随着社群和国家之间贸易的增加，传染病也增加了。

From smallpox to influenza to the plague, there was often no medical treatment to prevent or cure these diseases. Take for example, the plague that hit Europe in the 14th century. It is also known as the "Black Death."
从天花、流感到瘟疫，这类疾病通常都没有药物可以预防或治疗。例如14世纪席卷欧洲的瘟疫。它也被称为“黑死病”。

With no medical prevention available, isolating the sick was the only effective public health defense. With many other pandemics, the best chance at prevention was to keep sick people away from healthy people. This is called a quarantine.
没有可用的医学预防措施，隔离病人便成了唯一有效的公共卫生防御措施。预防许多其它传染病的最好办法就是使病人远离健康人群。这被称之为quarantine（隔离）。

And that is our word for today.
这就是我们今天要讲的词语。

Word experts at Merriam-Webster explain that the word "quarantine" has both French and Italian influences.
韦氏词典的词汇专家解释到，quarantine这个单词同时受到了法语和意大利语的影响。

In the late 1400s, English speakers borrowed the French word quarantaine which means "a period of about 40 days." Quarante is the word for the number 40 (forty) in French.
在15世纪后期，讲英语的人士引入了quarantaine这个法语单词，它的意思是40天左右的时间。法语中的Quarante是指40这个数字。

At that time, quarantaine had a religious meaning. Some word experts say it refers to the period of time Jesus spent fasting -- going without food -- in the desert.
当时，quarantaine这个单词具有宗教意义。一些词汇专家表示，它是指耶稣在沙漠中禁食的时间期限。

However, over time, people began using it for more than just religious situations. For example, it referred to the delay of putting a legal agreement in place. In the early 1500s, quarantine also was used to describe a "period of 40 days in which a widow has the right to remain in her dead husband's house."
然而随着时间推移，人们开始将其用于宗教以外场合。例如，它是指实施法律协议的推迟。在16世纪初期，quarantine还用于描述“寡妇有权在亡夫家中居住40天的期限。”

Around the same time, other city-states in Europe were also using a similar word -- quarantena. This word was used to mean the "isolation of a ship to protect the port city from potential disease."
大约在同一时期，欧洲其它城邦也使用了quarantena这个类似的单词。这个单词用来表示“隔离船只以保护港口城市免受潜在疾病的侵害。”

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention explains on its website that "quarantine was first introduced in 1377 on Croatia's Dalmatian Coast."
美国疾病控制与预防中心在其官方网站上解释称：“quarantine最早于1377年在克罗地亚的达尔马提亚海岸被引入。”

By the 1600s, English speakers began using quarantena to mean "isolation as protection from disease." As the French form of this word (quarantaine) was already being used, English kept it but gave it a new meaning. It was now an English word based on French spelling -- with an Italian definition and Latin roots.
到了17世纪，讲英语的人士开始使用quarantena来表示“作为预防疾病措施而隔离。”由于quarantaine这个单词的法语形式已经被使用，因此英语保留了这个单词，但是赋予了它新的含义。现在，它是一个基于法语拼写、具有意大利语含义和拉丁语词源的英文单词。

In North America in the late 1600s, quarantine was introduced to control yellow fever. The CDC says this was the case in New York (1688) and in Boston (1691).
北美在17世纪后期引入了quarantine这个单词以控制黄热病。美国疾病控制与防御中心表示，1688年的纽约和1691的波士顿就是这种情况。

That's the word history. Now, let's talk about how to use "quarantine" in a sentence.
这就是这个单词的历史。现在，让我们来谈谈如何在句子中使用quarantine这个单词。

For starters, it is both a noun and a verb.
对于初学者来说，它既是名词又是动词。

As a noun, we often use it after the preposition "under." If someone is under quarantine, they are required to physically keep away from others. For example: "When she was under quarantine, the woman learned how to play the piano and speak simple Russian."
作为名词，我们经常将它跟在介词under后面。如果某人被隔离，就必须同他人保持物理距离。例如：“当这个女人被隔离时，她学会了弹钢琴和说简单的俄语。”

The word "quarantine" is often combined with other nouns. In the news and from government announcements you may read about, quarantine guidelines, quarantine authority and quarantine systems.
Quarantine这个单词通常与其它名词结合使用。在新闻和政府公告中，你可能会读到有关隔离准则、隔离机构和隔离体系这些词汇。

As a verb, we can say that some young people in the United States are not fully self-quarantining themselves.
作为动词，我们可以说，美国一些年轻人没有彻底地自我隔离。

So, isolation and quarantine are both ways to help protect the public. They both prevent exposure to people who have or may have a contagious disease.
因此， isolation 和 quarantine都是有助于保护公众的办法。它们都可以防止接触到患有或可能患有传染性疾病的人士。