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Having studied languages, linguistics
and computing, Dom Glennon now works as a systems developer
for Cambridge Dictionaries. Each month, he calculates and comments
on the top 20 most viewed entries on Cambridge Dictionaries Online.
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The situation in Iraq continues to make its mark on the top 20, notably in the form of new entries loot and regime, but the highest new entry, quarantine, as well as epidemic, suggest that it's the SARS virus that's foremost in our users' minds (although according to the top Google hit for the two words, it might be tortoise disease).
quarantine has an interesting history - the word comes from Italian quarantina, meaning a period of forty days. This was the period of time for which a ship arriving at a port had to wait until being allowed to enter, during the time of the Black Death. The word has come to refer to the detention process, rather than the specific period of time. And to show the cosmopolitan nature of English, loot is derived from the Hindi word lut, meaning 'valuables pillaged in time of war'.
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