contagium
English
Etymology
From Latin contagium (“contagion”).
Noun
contagium (plural contagia)
- (archaic) contagion; contagious matter [ca. 1870—1910]
- 1865, John Simon, "Minutes of Evidence Taken Before the Cattle Plague Commissioners", Report on the Origin, Propagation, Nature, and Treatment of the Cattle Plague (1866), page 42
- And its escape [from certain diseases] is an approximative proof that, at least for those ten years, no contagium of measles, “nor any contagium of scarlet fever, nor any contagium of small-pox, had arisen spontaneously" within its limits.
- 1901 December 20, H. Watkins-Pitchford, “Rinderpest”, in The Agricultural Journal and Mining Record, volume 4, number 21, pages 641-642:
- That this in fact was the case was ascertained by Dr. Edington, who, by adding a large percentage (33 per cent.) of glycerine to the gall taken from a rinderpest beast, was able to show that by such contact the infective power of bile was as effectually destroyed as was the contagium of blood.
- 1865, John Simon, "Minutes of Evidence Taken Before the Cattle Plague Commissioners", Report on the Origin, Propagation, Nature, and Treatment of the Cattle Plague (1866), page 42
Latin
Etymology
con- + *tagium, from the base of tango (“I touch”).
Noun
contāgium n (genitive contāgiī or contāgī); second declension
- contact, touching
- Synonyms: contāctus, contagiō
- contagion
- Synonyms: contāctus, contāminātiō
Declension
Second-declension noun (neuter).
| Case | Singular | Plural |
|---|---|---|
| Nominative | contāgium | contāgia |
| Genitive | contāgiī contāgī1 | contāgiōrum |
| Dative | contāgiō | contāgiīs |
| Accusative | contāgium | contāgia |
| Ablative | contāgiō | contāgiīs |
| Vocative | contāgium | contāgia |
1Found in older Latin (until the Augustan Age).
Related terms
- contagiō
- contingō
Descendants
- Catalan: contagi
- → English: contagium
- Galician: contaxio
- Ido: kontagio
- Italian: contagio
- Portuguese: contágio
- Spanish: contagio
References
- “contagium”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- “contagium”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
- contagium in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
- contagium in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette