By 
Jessica Oreck
 | 
TED-Ed Original

Mysteries of vernacular: Quarantine

Stemming from the days of bubonic plague in Medieval Europe quarantines were originally used to prevent potentially plague-infested ships from disembarking at a port city. Jessica Oreck and Rachael Teel explain how the length of the wait often 40 days came to be associated with the word we use today.

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