Quaranta

Quaranta is an Italian word for the number forty. It is also the root word for "quarantine".

During 1347 through 1353 The Black Death (bubonic plague) ravaged most of Europe and the Mediterranean Coastal lands. Due to how deadly this disease was, many ports tried to provant the chance of it coming into their cities. One of the things they did was to incoming ships, the ships were often forced to wait 40 days before coming ashore, to prevent possible infection. This was good for the city and bad for those on the ship. As it is easy for diseases to spread aboard a ship and amongst those aboard. Using this term "good" lightly here, is if the ship was infected with the dead, it was easier to burn the ship than allowing it to spread into the city.