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Contagious comes from the Latin contagio, meaning to touch closely. It means transmission of an infectious disease from person to person by touching externally, directly or indirectly, someone already sick with the infection. Contagious says the germs are spreadable from one place to another.
Infectious comes from the Latin infectus, meaning to dip into, to dye (not die), and to spoil, taint or corrupt. Infection is more often used to discuss the actual invasion of a body by the microbes spread from touching. It means the microbes have now entered your being somehow, someway, to spoil your normal functions.
Are all infections contagious? Yes, but the timetables of their disease courses, and to what degree they are contagious for each person or disease, vary immensely. Even an infected cut contains microbes that might be transmitted under appropriate conditions. Chicken pox is almost 100 percent contagious. That virus infects virtually everyone who breathes them in, and will cause some signs and symptoms in the nonimmune person. Wart viruses, on the other hand (foot?), cannot and do not infect every place or person they touch. Reasons are unknown and fascinating to contemplate (if you don’t have the warts).
Another example might be horseradish on a slice of bread. The horseradish is contagious because it can be spread from the jar to the bread. Does it infect (in effect spoil) the bread? Some would say yes. I must disagree. It merely enhances the salami, along with the mustard, sauerkraut and maybe a little onion and paprika.
Now, wouldn’t you agree?
