Etymology

infectious

I1N1F4E1C3T1I1O1U1S1

Today it means: Caused by an agent that enters the host's body (such as a bacterium, virus, parasite, or prion); often, also, transmitted among hosts via any of various routes (for example, contact, droplet-borne, airborne, waterborne, foodborne, fomite-borne, or bloodborne). Full definition →

New Latin īnfectiōsus
Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

The story

  1. New Latin · borrowed fromīnfectiōsus
  2. English todayinfectious

Borrowed from New Latin īnfectiōsus. By surface analysis, infect + -ious.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.