[ME. a. F. contagion, or ad. L. contāgiōn-em a touching, contact, contagion, f. con- together + tangĕre to touch. So It. contagione.]
1. The communication of disease from body to body by contact direct or mediate.
(The two earliest quots. perhaps belong to b or to 2.)
a. 1535. More, De quat. Noviss., Wks. 73/1. Yf a manne bee so dayntye stomaked, that goyng where contagion is, he woulde grudge to take a lyttle tryacle.
1594. Lady Russell, in Ellis, Orig. Lett., I. 233. III. 40. A comfortable litle breckfast agaynst the contagion of this tyme.
1626. Bacon, Sylva (1628), § 901. In Infection and Contagion from Body to Body, (as the Plague, and the like,) it is most certaine, that the Infection is receiued (many times) by the Body Passive, but yet is by the Strength, and good Disposition thereof, Repulsed, and wrought out, before it be formed into a Disease.
1658. Sir T. Browne, Hydriot., i. 4. The Jewish Nation … to avoid contagion or pollution, in time of pestilence, burnt the bodies of their friends.
1801. Med. Jrnl., V. 146. Dr. Tissott … observes, that the Small-pox … does not propagate itself so much by contagion as by an infection of the air.
1860–1. Flor. Nightingale, Nursing, ii. 13. Scarlet fever would be no more ascribed to contagion but to its right cause.
b. Contagious quality or influence.
1596. Spenser, F. Q., V. vii. 11. Such is the powre of that same fruit, that nought The fell contagion may thereof restraine.
1601. Shaks., Jul. C., II. i. 265. What, is Brutus sicke? And will he steale out of his wholsome bed To dare the vile contagion of the Night?
1805. Med. Jrnl., XIV. 561. The most striking contradictions in their belief and assertions on the subject of its contagion.
2. A contagious disease or sickness; a plague or pestilence.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., VII. lxiv. (1495), 281. Lepra also comith of fader and moder, and so this contagyon passyth in to the chylde as it were by lawe of herytage.
1555. Eden, Decades, 142. They [the Cannibals] haue spredde their generation … lyke a pestiferous contagion.
1650. Weldon, Crt. Jas. I., 28. He was forced by that contagion [a plague] to leave the Metropolis.
1654. H. L’Estrange, Chas. I. (1655), 7. Bulloign, where she was to imbarque for England, (the contagion being then much at Calais).
1722. De Foe, Plague (1840), 202. The contagion despised all medicine, death raged in every corner.
1856. R. A. Vaughan, Mystics (1860), I. 243. In the year 1348 that terrible contagion known as the Black Death … appeared at Strasburg.
3. The substance or principle by which a contagious disease is transmitted; = CONTAGIUM.
1603. Lodge, Plague, B ij b. Contagion, is an euil qualitie in a bodie, communicated vnto an other by touch, engendring one and the same disposition in him to whom it is communicated.
1751. Chambers, Cycl., s.v., In others [diseases] the contagion is transmitted through the air to a great distance, by means of steams, or effluvia, expiring from the sick.
1800. Med. Jrnl., III. 322. It ought to have been mentioned, whence this contagion came; or how it was generated in the prison. Ibid. (1801), V. 84. It may possibly be observed, that the Variolous Contagion, from having extended its influence over the earth’s whole surface … cannot be destroyed either by accident or design.
1849. Robertson, Serm., Ser. IV. xviii. (1876), 194. The food of man seems poisonous, the air is charged with contagion.
b. concr. A poison that infects the blood. poet.
1602. Shaks., Ham., IV. vii. 148. Ile touch my point With this contagion [a poisonous ointment], that if I gall him slightly It may be death.
c. transf.
1602. Shaks., Ham., III. ii. 408. The verie witching time of night, When Churchyards yawne, and Hell it selfe breaths out Contagion to this world.
4. fig. Hurtful, defiling, or corrupting contact; infecting influence.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Sec. Nun’s T., 72. My soule … That troubled is by the contagioun Of my body.
1483. Caxton, Gold. Leg., 196/3. Thus Saynt geneuefe delyuerd Saynt celyne fro peryl and fro the contagyon of the world.
1592. trans. Junius on Rev. xviii. 4. The contagion of sin.
1643. Sir T. Browne, Relig. Med., II. § 10. It is the corruption that I feare within me, not the contagion of commerce without me.
1776. Gibbon, Decl. & F., I. xxi. 591. His mind was tainted by the contagion of fanaticism.
1836. Thirlwall, Greece, II. xiii. 190. The contagion of these vices undoubtedly spread through the nation.
1867. Freeman, Norm. Conq. (1876), I. v. 282. Exposed to the contagion of foreign influence.
b. Contagious or spreading moral disease; moral corruption.
a. 1533. Frith, Wks., 115 (R.). This contagion began to spring euen in St. Paules tyme.
1669. Gale, Crt. Gentiles, I. III. v. 63. An universal Contagion, or Corruption diffused throughout the whole of human Nature.
1796. Morse, Amer. Geog., II. 587. All forsook their ancient faith, and became Mahometans … the contagion spread over Arabia, Syria, Egypt and Persia.
1848. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., I. 401. A few eminent men … were exempt from the general contagion.
5. fig. The contagious or ‘catching’ influence or operation of example, sympathy, and the like.
1632. J. Hayward, trans. Biondi’s Eromena, 186. Her griefe alone was an universall contagion to the Universe.
1654. R. Whitlock, Ζωοτομια, 208. Our opinions comming more by Contagion, than on Deliberation.
1781. Gibbon, Decl. & F., II. 117. The contagion of loyalty and repentance was communicated from rank to rank.
1856. Froude, Hist. Eng. (1858), II. vi. 14. By the contagion of example he gathered about him other men who thought as he did.
1862. Stanley, Jew. Ch. (1877), I. xviii. 343. A contagion of goodness, of enthusiasm, of energy … almost impossible to resist.
1872. Yeats, Growth Comm., 259. The contagion of adventure which was spread abroad by the Spanish discoveries.
† 6. transf. Taint; tainting or adulterating contact; impure admixture. Obs.
1695. Woodward, Nat. Hist. Earth, I. (1723), 23. Multitudes of Shells … absolutely free from any such Mineral Contagion. Ibid., IV. (1723), 246. Even the most obvious and ordinary Minerals are not free from this Contagion of adventitious Matter.
† 7. Foulness, noisomeness, stench. Obs.
1662. J. Chandler, Van Helmont’s Oriat., 102. The water of the same Well, three dayes before, sent forth the stinking savour of Brimstone, and … its contagion, yellowness, together with the turbulency of the water, did bewray it.
