contagion

Etymology

From Middle English (late 14th century), from Old French, from Latin contagio (“a touching, contact, contagion”) related to contingo (“touch closely”)

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -eɪdʒən

Noun

contagion (countable and uncountable, plural contagions)

1. A disease spread by contact.
2. The spread or transmission of such a disease.
3. The spread of anything harmful, as if it were such a disease.
4. (finance) A situation in which small shocks, which initially affect only a few financial institutions or a particular region of an economy, spread to the rest of financial sectors and other countries whose economies were previously healthy.
   • 2011, George Soros, Project Syndicate, Germany Must Defend the Euro:

     And it was German procrastination that aggravated the Greek crisis and caused the contagion that turned it into an existential crisis for Europe.

5. (finance) A resulting recession or crisis developed in such manner.

See also

• quarantine
• Contagious disease on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• cognation

Noun

contagion f (plural contagions)

1. contagion

Further reading

• “contagion” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).