Social distancing at a London supermarket, 30 March 2020.
8 May 2020
The phrase social distance has three distinct meanings. The oldest is used today mainly in the social sciences to refer to differences in social class; the distance here is metaphorical. This sense dates to the early nineteenth century, with the oldest citation in the Oxford English Dictionary being in an 1830 translation of L. A. F. De Bourrienne’s Private Memoirs of Napoleon Bonaparte:
Here terminated my connexion with Bonaparte as a comrade and equal [...] His position placed too great a social distance between him and me, not to make me feel the necessity of fashioning my demeanor accordingly.
About a century later, the phrase began to be used to denote a measure of literal distance, in this case the separation typically maintained between people in person-to-person interactions. This sense is often used in psychological and etiquettical contexts. From the 4 November 1935 theater review in the Times (London):
Miss Tempest at a bridge table significantly watches her husband's embarrassed attempts to maintain a safe social distance between himself and his possessive admirer.
The third sense is also one of physical separation, but it is used in the context of controlling the spread of a contagious disease. The earliest citation of this sense that I can find is from November 2004 in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases. There may be antedatings to be found, but the quotation marks around the phrase indicate that the use in this context is new or unfamiliar to the author and editors:
The 2003 outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) is a modern example of containing a global epidemic through traditional or nonmedical public health interventions. The interventions included finding and isolating patients; quarantining contacts; measures to “increase social distance,” such as canceling mass gatherings and closing schools; recommending that the public augment personal hygiene and wear masks; and limiting the spread of infection by domestic and international travelers, by issuing travel advisories and screening travelers at borders.
And the next month there is social distancing from the December 2004 issue of Biosecurity and Bioterrorism: Biodefense Strategy, Practice, and Science:
The emotional reactions to social distancing were reported as fear, isolation, loneliness, depression, insomnia, and anxiety, but boredom was specifically cited as the greatest emotional disincentive to compliance with quarantine.
This sense of social distance appears outside of the public health community about a year later on 30 October 2005 in the New York Times.
Dr. Matthew Cartter [sic], the epidemiology program coordinator for the public health department, said his agency has actually been preparing for a pandemic since the 1990's. He said there are not enough hospital beds in the state should a pandemic occur. If officials instead call quarantines "increasing social distance" or "community shielding," will residents be more willing to participate in them? Probably, he said.
So while most English-speakers became familiar with social distancing during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, the use of the term in public health circles is much older.
Sources:
Bell, David M., et al. “Public Health Interventions and SARS Spread, 2003.” Emerging Infectious Diseases, 10.11, November 2004, 1900–06.
DiGiovanni, Clete, et al. “Factors Influencing Compliance with Quarantine in Toronto During the 2003 SARS Outbreak. Biosecurity and Bioterrorism: Biodefense Strategy, Practice, and Science, 2.4, December 2004, 265–72.
Gordon, Jane. “Just in Case: Planning for an Avian Flu Outbreak.” New York Times, 30 October 2005, Q3.
Oxford English Dictionary, third edition, September 2009, s.v. social distance, n.
Photo credit: Philafrenzy, 2020, used under CC BY-SA 4.0.