contagious, contageous, contagyows

[Fr. contagieux; Sp., Port. & Ital. contagioso, all from Lat. contagiosus.] IMG:content-0743.png:[blocks in formation] 2. Of air , of flies , .: Communicating or transmitting contagion. "After the whiche reyne ensued so great excedynge nombre and multytude of flyes, the whiche were to the people so noyous and contageous , that they slewe moc he people."- Fabyan , vol. i., ch. xix. II. Fig .: Communicating anything from one to another or to others. "From look to look, contagious through the crowd, The panic runs, Thomson: Autumn, Contagious Diseases Acts : IMG:content-0744.png:[blocks in formation] 2. To comprehend, to comprise, to include. "Wherefore also it is contained in the scripture,..." -1 Pet . ii. 6. 3. To be equivalent to, to comprehend. "A cubite of gemetrie conteyneth sixe comoun cubites." -Trevis a, ii. 235. *4. To fill up, to amount to. "Som epistel that walde, as seith myn auctour well contene neigh half this boke."-Chaucer: Troilus, iii. 452. *5. To comprise, to make up a number; to include. "Shrewes, whiche that contienen the more partie of men." Chaucer: Boethius , p. 116. 6. To include, to be accompanied or attended by. "Bygynnyng of mans lyf.;, Contenes mykel wrechednes.' B. Reflexive : Hampole: Prick of Consc., 439. 1. To restrain or retain one's self, to keep quiet or calm. IMG:content-0745.png:[blocks in formation] In this country, national, state, and municipal laws have been enacted regulating sanitation, isolation, quarantine, ., during the prevalence of 1 Cor . vii. 9. contagious diseases. The enforcement of these laws are generally committed to health officers, who have powers of police conferred upon them. Crabb thus discriminates between contagious , epidemical , and pestilential : "The contagious aрplies to that which is capable of being caught, and ought not, therefore, to be touched; the epidemical to that which is already caught or circulated, and requires, therefore, to be stopped; the pestilential to that which may breed an evil, and is, therefore, to be removed: diseases are contagious or epidem ical ; the air or breath is pestilential . They may all be applied morally or figuratively in the same sense. We endeavor to shun a contagious disorder, that it " 3. To conduct or bear one's self; to act. "Hon that komeli knight kunteyned on his stede." William of Palerne, 3,300. Crabb thus discriminates between to contain and to hold : "These terms agree in sense, but differ in application; the former is by comparison noble, the latter is ignoble in its use; hold is employed only for the material contents of hollow bodies; contain is employed for the moral or spiritual contents: in familiar discourse a cask is said to hold , but in more polished language it is said to contain a certain number of gallons. A coach holds or con tains a given number of persons; a room holds a may not come near us; we endeavor to purify a pes- given quantity of furniture: a house or city con tilential air, that it may not be inhaled to our jury: we endeavor to provide against epidemical disorders, that they may not spread any farther, Vicious example is contagious ; certain follies or vices of fashion are epidemical ; the breath of infidelity is pestilential ." ( Crabb : Eng . Synon .) con-tā-gio us-ly, adv . [Eng. contagious ; -ly .] In a contagious manner, so as to communicate contagion or anything else capable of being transmitted from one to another. "There is nothing which spreads more contagiously from teacher to pupil than elevation of sentiment." -J. S. Mill : Inaug. Addre at St. Andrew's , 1867, p. 37.