The word "quarantine" is undoubtedly one of the terms most used today.
Le Petit Robert gives the following definition:
"Isolation of variable duration (originally forty days) imposed in the event of contagious risks."
In the current context, it is easy to understand the relevance of its use as a term.
The establishment of a quarantine allows
"to exclude, to put aside"
, continues Le Petit Robert.
In the same way, the “septaine” designates a setting aside, a quarantine therefore, but of seven days.
The use of this new word is for Linda Giguère a manifestation of the protest spirit of the French:
“The more the pandemic worsens, the more the period of social isolation shortens.
At first, we were talking about quarantine.
Then we invented a new word: quatorzaine, that is to say two weeks of shelving.
And now septaine. ”
A portmanteau word
The word "week" might have been a good idea.
Especially since "septaine" is not really an invention.
It meant in Middle French
"a quantity of seven similar things"
, Le Littré tells us.
Today disappeared from the dictionaries, it is once again in the spotlight in our language, but with a slightly different meaning:
"septaine is perhaps what we will one day call a portmanteau word, a word formed from two other words, seven and forty, ”
continues Linda Giguère.
Unlike
"week"
, which does not illustrate the idea of social isolation.
The pronunciation is also different.
At the end of the Middle Ages, we did not pronounce the letter
"p"
, just as we keep silent for the word
"seven".
There is no doubt that the language of Molière has not ceased for several months to adorn itself with new words, and to grant a new youth to others.
Linda Giguère has fun:
"The more the crisis sets in, the more our corona language emancipates."
The ancestral richness of the French language could still surprise us ...
