lazzaretto

Noun

lazaretto (plural lazarettos or lazarettoes or lazaretti)

1. (historical) A place reserved for people with infectious diseases (especially leprosy or plague) to live on a long-term basis.
   • For the plague, there is an houſe of many lodgeingꝭ [lodgeinges], two miles from Venice, called the Lazaretta, vnto the which all they of that houſe, wherin one hath been infected of the plague, are incontinẽtly ſent, and a lodgeyng ſufficiente appoincted for theim till the infection ceaſſe, that...1561, Wylliam Thomas [i.e., William Thomas], “[The Venetian Astate.] Of Common Prouision and Charitable Deedes.”, in The Historye of Italye. […], London: […] Thomas Parishe, →OCLC, folio 83, recto

   Synonyms:

   lazaret, lazar house, pesthouse

2. (also, figuratively, historical) A building such as a hospital, or occasionally a ship, used to temporarily isolate sick people to prevent the spread of infectious diseases; a quarantine.
   • [H]ovv t'enquire, and be reſolu'd, / By preſent demonſtration, vvhether a ſhip, / Nevvly arriued from Soria, or from / Any ſuſpected part of all the leuant, / Be guilty of the plague: And, vvhere they vſe, / To lie out fortie, fifty daies, ſometimes, / About the Lazaretto, for their triall; […]1605 (first performance), Beniamin Ionson [i.e., Ben Jonson], “Volpone, or The Foxe. A Comœdie. […]”, in The Workes of Beniamin Ionson (First Folio), London: […] Will[iam] Stansby, published 1616...

   Synonyms:

   lazaret

3. (broadly) A place at the front of the tweendecks of a merchant ship where provisions are stored.
   • After a large quantity of proviſions had been hoiſted up to get out the powder, the ſmoke was ſtill found to aſcend from below; this circumſtance, […] convinced them that the fire muſt be in the lazaretto below, where ſome purſers beds were now recollected to have been very improperly ſtowed; […]...1798, George Vancouver, chapter IV, in John Vancouver, editor, A Voyage of Discovery to the North Pacific Ocean, and Round the World; […], volume II, London: […] G. G. and J. Robinson, […]; and J....

   Synonyms:

   lazaret