Especially in these times of pandemic we follow the news on many newspapers, websites, or official journals that may have the word “Gazette” in their titles. For example: The London Gazette, The Daily Gazette, Montreal Gazette, and so on. Well, there we go with another Venetian word that became popular worldwide: Gazette.
Back in the 16th century the weekly newspaper “La Gazeta dele novità” was edited in Venice. It was so named because it costed one Venetian coin called “Gaxeta”, in standard Italian: “Gazzetta”.
“Ciao”, “Quarantine”, “Gazette”, and the list goes on. All these words originated in Venice and they are internationally known to this very day. It may seem surprising, but let’s remember that the Republic of Venice has been a commercial power for centuries and very often idioms and words travel along the trade routes.
At the peak of the Black Death, the authorities of the port of Venice imposed a period of isolation upon the crews of arriving ships. The minimum number of days required was forty, and so the period was known in Venetian dialect as 'quarantena', from 'quaranta', 'forty'. https://t.co/WzjqERtZ2D— Susie Dent (@susie_dent) July 23, 2020
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