Webster
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Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Contagious

Con·ta′gious, a. [L. contagiosus: cf. F. contagieux.] 1. (Med.) Communicable by contact, by a virus, or by a bodily exhalation; catching; as, a contagious disease.

2. Conveying or generating disease; pestilential; poisonous; as, contagious air.

3. Spreading or communicable from one to another; exciting similar emotions or conduct in others.

His genius rendered his courage more contagious. Wirt.

The spirit of imitation is contagious. Ames.

Syn. — Contagious, Infectious. These words have been used in very diverse senses; but, in general, a contagious disease has been considered as one which is caught from another by contact, by the breath, by bodily effluvia, etc.; while an infectious disease supposes some entirely different cause acting by a hidden influence, like the miasma of prison ships, of marshes, etc., infecting the system with disease. "This distinction, though not universally admitted by medical men, as to the literal meaning of the words, certainly applies to them in their figurative use. Thus we speak of the contagious influence of evil associates; their contagion of bad example, the contagion of fear, etc., when we refer to transmission by proximity or contact. On the other hand, we speak of infection by bad principles, etc., when we consider anything as diffused by some hidden influence.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article; Greek words our source left out (shown as “?”), read from the 1898 printing, from the same plates (the Library of Congress’s copy), where the place could be found with certainty. Of the others, 1,362 (a word or a single letter each) were inferred by AI from the context by the dictionary’s own rules and are marked with a wavy underline (tap or point at one to see the note); the rest, which could not be inferred with confidence, are left as “?”.