Able to be communicated or transmitted from one person to another, especially referring to infectious diseases.
From Latin 'communicare' (to share, impart) plus '-able' suffix. Developed in medical contexts to describe diseases that spread between individuals through various transmission methods.
The medical appropriation of 'communicable' creates an interesting irony - while communication usually implies positive sharing of information, communicable diseases represent the unwanted sharing of pathogens.
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