lazar

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English lazer, also lazre and laser,^[2][3] borrowed from Medieval Latin lazarus (“leper”),^[4][5][6][2] partly through Old French lasdre, modern ladre.^[7][3] The Anglo-Norman lazre, a leper, is recorded from the late 12th century, also as a surname.^[8] The Medieval Latin word is an application of Late Latin Lazarus, the name of the beggar full of sores in the parable of Luke 16:20,^{[4][9][6][10]} which comes through Ancient Greek Λάζαρος (Lázaros) from Biblical Hebrew אֶלְעָזָר (ʾElʿāzār), a name meaning "God has helped".^[1][11][3] The same name gave Italian lazzaro.^[4] Barnhart also finds the surname Lazur in 1280.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A diseased person, especially a leper: probably about 1300, as lazer in Amis and Amiloun, according to Barnhart;^[2] the OED's first quotation is from the Ayenbite of Inwyt (1340),^[4] and Etymonline gives "filthy beggar, leper", about 1300.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The word took its meaning from the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, in which the beggar is covered in sores.^[9][10] From 1483, in Caxton's Golden Legend, it was also an adjective, leprous or loathsomely diseased, and was used figuratively.^[4] From 1573, in Tusser, to 1710 lazar also named discoloured, decaying matter in cheese.^[4][7] Johnson (1755) defined it as one deformed and nauseous with filthy and pestilential diseases, quoting Spenser's "loathsome lazars, by the hedges lay".^[12] The word is now archaic,^[7][3][13] and Collins marks it obsolete.^[14] It survives in lazaretto, a house for lepers, later a quarantine station, and lazar house, recorded slightly earlier.^[3]

Timeline

• c. 1300 – lazer, a diseased person, a leper.^[2][5]
• 1340 – a poor and diseased person, especially a leper.^[4]
• 1483 – adjective, leprous; also figurative.^[4]
• 1573 – decaying matter in cheese (obsolete by 1710).^[4][7]

Meanings

Noun

1. (archaic) A poor person with a loathsome disease, especially a leper.^{[6][7][4][14]}
2. (obsolete, 1573–1710) Discoloured, decaying matter in cheese.^[4][7]

Adjective

1. (archaic) Leprous, or affected with a loathsome disease.^[4][7]

Word family

• lazarlike

Related words

• lazaretto
• lazaret
• lazzarone
• leper

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d e Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b c d e f g Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
9. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
10. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
12. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
13. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
14. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins