Etymologically
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contagium

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Forms

contāgium n (genitive contāgiī or contāgī); second declension[1]

Etymology

It is from the root of contingō “to touch”, from con- and tangō, with the suffix -ium, as a byform of contāgiō; like it, it lacks the nasal of the present stem.[2][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The OLD's first citations are from Lucretius, of contact and of the infection of disease.[2] Köbler dates Lucretius 96–55 BC.[3]

Semantic evolution

It was at first used only in the plural, as a poetic form of contāgiō; the singular appears in Curtius and Seneca.[2] It meant touching, contact, and contact that passes on an infection, as Lucretius' disease penetrating the mind and Virgil's infection from a neighbour's flock, and infection with any evil, as Horace's and Ovid's influence of a sick mind.[2][4] Döderlein says luēs is an epidemic as morbid matter, contāgium as contagious, and pestilentia as a disease prevailing in the land.[5]

In Ecclesiastical Latin it meant contagion, temptation.[6] In Medieval Latin it meant contact and contagion, also figuratively.[7] English contagium was borrowed, and English contagion comes from contāgiō.[1][8]

Timeline

  • 96–55 BC – Lucretius uses it of infection.[2][3]
  • 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it of infection from a flock.[2][3]
  • 65–8 BC – Horace uses it of moral pollution.[2][3]

Meanings

Noun

  1. Touch, contact.[2]
  2. Infection, contagion.[2]
  3. Pollution, corrupting influence.[2]

Word family

  • contāgiōsus

References

  1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  4. ^ Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
  5. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper
  6. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  7. ^ Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press
  8. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com