English
contagion
Contagion comes from Latin contāgiō ‘a touching, contact, contagion’, and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *teh₂g-.
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*teh₂g-1‘to touch’root named by Wiktionary
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEcontāgiō1‘a touching, contact, contagion’
- Englishearliest quotation 1838contagion1
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
- 1 Wiktionary, English contagion
- Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1838, Letitia Elizabeth Landon, Keeping up Appearances. […]: “It is true, they were a good-natured and respectable…”.
Lineage
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*teh₂g-Wiktionary, English contagion‘to touch’root named by Wiktionary
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEcontāgiōWiktionary, English contagion‘a touching, contact, contagion’
- Englishearliest quotation 1838contagionWiktionary, English contagion. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1838, Letitia Elizabeth Landon, Keeping up Appearances. […]: “It is true, they were a good-natured and respectable…”
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *teh₂g- ‘to touch’
taste, integrity, integrate, attain, tame, tangible, taxis, contingent, tactile, tact, tangent, taxonomy, contiguous, tama, talon, ataxia, contaminate, talus, thwack, 31 more
Today it means
noun A disease spread by contact.
Sources
Sources: Wiktionary, “contagion”. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.
Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *teh₂g- / contagion