Today , we are going to talk about being trapped indoors for a long period of time . Sometimes we are stuck indoors with others and are unable to go out to usual places , such as restaurants , movie theaters and sporting events . Sometimes these restrictions are forced upon us . We have little choice in the matter . People in this situation may develop “cabin fever .” Cabin fever is a condition . It happens when someone is stuck inside for a long period of time . If someone is unable to get outside into fresh air or be around other human beings , they may start to feel closed in , stuck , trapped . When people are forced to stay in a remote or confined place , they may feel unhappy , restless and bored . We have many other adjectives to describe cabin fever . Because our patience is tested , we may feel irritable and short-tempered . The smallest thing sets us off or in other words -- makes us angry . Every little thing gets on our nerves . Word historians say “cabin fever ” probably came into use in the late 1800s in North America . Early settlers lived in log cabins . They would spend long winters by themselves on the Great Plains . Cold , windy weather and great distances from other people created a truly isolating existence for months at a time . Documents at the United States Library of Congress (LOC ) suggest another origin for the term “cabin fever .” This one involves the disease typhoid . In August of 1906 , a woman named Mary Mallon began work as a cook in a wealthy home in New York state . By September , several people in that household got the disease typhoid . Health officials traced the cause back to the cook , Mary . The LOC documents say that on March 19 , 1907 , she was “forcibly removed from her home by the health department .” “Typhoid Mary ,” as she was called in the press , was first sent to the hospital then to an isolated cabin . Mary Mallon fought for her release . She had private tests done to prove she did not have typhoid . Her story was often reported in many newspapers and she gained sympathy in the press . On July 10 , 1909 , The Richmond Planet ran the story , “Typhoid Mary Wants Liberty .” In it Mallon says she was forced to live in a house by herself with only a dog for companionship . She had been in forced quarantine for about two years . Then in February 1910 , Typhoid Mary was released on one condition -- that she never work as a cook again . However , she broke that condition , this time under a different name – Mary Brown . In 1915 , typhoid broke out again -- this time at a hospital . It turned out that Mary Mallon was again at the center of it . And again , officials took her away . Typhoid Mary spent the last 23 years of her life in forced isolation . And this time , no one felt bad or sided with her . The press continued to call her “Typhoid Mary ,” a name that has stuck . The case of Typhoid Mary is a serious example of forced isolation . And most likely , she suffered from “cabin fever .” These days , however , we usually use the term in a more light-hearted way . We might say , “I have a serious case of cabin fever . I need to get out of my house !” Join us again next week for another closer look at the English language .