In English, if the word “quarantine” is applied to an infection-avoiding isolation period of either more or less than 40 days, that’s arguably an abuse of linguistic tradition that reveals whoever says it to be in need of remedial education.
Maybe? *I* probably need remedial education, too! Very prestigious linguists have asserted here or there that linguistics is a descriptivist science, and so, from their very prestigious perspective, any use of language is as good as any other use of language...
Still, it does give one pause.
How many people in public health read or write latin anymore? Maybe there are some things that people used to take so MUCH for granted that no one thought to spell them out? Like “40 day periods should last 40 days” is basically a tautology. Should THAT go into a medical book and become testable knowledge for doctors?
It would be scary for medical inferences based in the obvious literal meaning of words to be valid, so they are probably not valid. I’m sure everything is fine.
The word “cuarenta”, in Spanish, means 40.
In English, if the word “quarantine” is applied to an infection-avoiding isolation period of either more or less than 40 days, that’s arguably an abuse of linguistic tradition that reveals whoever says it to be in need of remedial education.
Maybe? *I* probably need remedial education, too! Very prestigious linguists have asserted here or there that linguistics is a descriptivist science, and so, from their very prestigious perspective, any use of language is as good as any other use of language...
Still, it does give one pause.
How many people in public health read or write latin anymore? Maybe there are some things that people used to take so MUCH for granted that no one thought to spell them out? Like “40 day periods should last 40 days” is basically a tautology. Should THAT go into a medical book and become testable knowledge for doctors?
It would be scary for medical inferences based in the obvious literal meaning of words to be valid, so they are probably not valid. I’m sure everything is fine.