Separating someone or something from others; keeping apart or alone, especially to prevent the spread of disease or to study something independently.
From French isoler, from Italian isola (island), from Latin insula; originally meant 'making into an island' or creating separation.
Quarantine and isolation became household words during COVID, but the practice is ancient—medieval cities had 'lazarettes' (isolation hospitals for plague victims) because doctors realized that separating the sick actually slowed disease spread.
Isolation is a control tactic disproportionately used against women in intimate partner violence and has been embedded in gendered social structures (purdah, foot-binding, domestic confinement). The word carries this gendered history of control.
When discussing isolation, name its gendered dimensions explicitly; avoid neutral language that obscures how isolation enforces gender-specific harm.
["separating","confining","restricting contact"]
Women survivors and feminist scholars have documented isolation as a core abuse tactic; centering survivor knowledge shapes how we frame and respond to it.
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