contagion

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

• IPA^(key): /kənˈteɪdʒən/
• Rhymes: -eɪdʒən

contagion (countable and uncountable, plural contagions)

1. a disease spread by contact
2. the spread or transmission of such a disease

   Synonym: infection

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

• quarantine
• Contagious disease on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

• cognation

contagion f (plural contagions)

1. contagion

• contagieux

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