Hello everyone,

Influenza, or “the flu” has spread all over the country. Unfortunately, some students and teachers have also caught it. The worst problem is in class M3D, who had to stay home for a few days this week. Hopefully they will be ok tomorrow and can come back to school.

One word we use in this situation is “quarantine”. When something is “quarantined”, it is kept away from other things until there is no danger. One of the most common things to quarantine are animals. If you bring an animal to a new country, it might need to stay at the airport for some time so it doesn’t spread disease.

The origin of the word quarantine is from Italian, quarantine, which means forty. Quarantina giorni means forty days, which is the time that ships from dangerous areas had to wait in the sea before landing in Italy.

There are a lot of little stories like this in English, because English words come from many different languages. The study of this “word history” is called etymology. If you find the history of words, it can help you learn how to say them. Also, it is just interesting! When you learn the story of the word “sandwich”, you will never forget it!

Have a good week.