A period or state of isolation used to prevent the spread of disease by keeping sick or possibly sick people, animals, or things away from others.
From Italian *quarantina (giorni)* meaning 'forty (days)', originally the forty days ships had to wait before landing during plague times. The idea of a fixed waiting period grew into our modern sense of disease isolation.
Quarantine literally started as 'forty days' of waiting, which is why it sounds like *quarter* and *quadrant* (things with 'four'). Even though modern quarantines may be shorter or longer, the old number is still hidden in the word.
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