contagiumn.
/kənˈteɪdʒɪəm/ΘΚΠ
the world > action or operation > harm or detriment > [noun] > quality > extreme
balea1000
malicea1382
deadlinessc1450
fatality1490
maliciousness1555
virulency1651
fatalness1652
contagium1654
virulentness1727
outrage1735
virulence1748
society > morality > moral evil > moral or spiritual degeneration > degrading or impairing morally > [noun] > corrupting > infection > infecting influence
contagionc1386
gleimc1394
lepera1400
taint1623
contagium1654
virus1778
1654 E. Gayton Pleasant Notes Don Quixot ii. ii. 39 Which without doubt hath a villanous contagium upon the grand magisterium of the Stone.
2. spec. ‘The supposed solid or gaseous organized or unorganized substance by which infectious or contagious diseases are communicated’ ( New Sydenham Soc. Lexicon); in plural the germs of disease.
ΘΚΠ
the world > health and disease > ill health > a disease > production of disease > [noun] > agent or medium
infectiona1398
leavena1400
virusa1400
contagion1603
taint1623
fomes1800
conductor1807
infectant1832
zymin1842
contagium1870
noxa1872
pathogen1880
zyme1882
auto-infectant1887
insult1903
1870 Pall Mall Gaz. 23 Aug. 10 Thoroughly to isolate the sick from intercourse with susceptible persons, and thoroughly to trap and exterminate the contagium which the bodies of the sick evolve.
1883 Tyndall in Glasgow Weekly Her. 2 June 1/5 Contagia are living things. Men and women have died by the million that bacteria and bacilli might live.
1891 Times (Weekly ed.) 10 July 12/3 He thinks that the contagium of influenza is a microbe, which enters the system through the surface of the eye.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1893; most recently modified version published online June 2018).
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n.1654