leprosy

Etymology

The revised OED takes it as probably borrowed from Anglo-Norman leprosie, also leprosye, leprosy or another skin disease,^[2] recorded in Anglo-Norman from the late 12th century.^[2][3] The Anglo-Norman noun is probably formed from lepros (“leprous”) and the suffix -ie.^[2] Most other dictionaries take it as formed from English leprous + -y.^{[4][5][6][7][8][9][10]} Dictionary.com suggests Medieval Latin leprōsia,^[11] but the OED notes that this Latin word is recorded only for a leper house, from the 13th century; it compares Old Occitan lebrosia, Catalan llebrosia, Spanish leprosia and Italian lebbrosia.^[2][11] Leprous is from Old French lepros, from Late Latin leprōsus, from Latin lepra (“leprosy”),^[4][9][5] from Ancient Greek λέπρα (lépra),^[1][2] the noun use of an adjective meaning "scaly, scabby", from a word for a scale;^[4][9] Etymonline traces it to Proto-Indo-European *lep- (“to peel”).^[4][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

A disease that makes the skin scaly, scabby or discoloured: before 1450, in the form lepruse, in the Agnus Castus herbal.^[2][12] Etymonline and the Shorter Oxford date the word to the 16th century, first in the Coverdale Bible.^[4][6]

Semantic evolution

The Middle English name of the disease was leper, from the mid-13th century, and when that word came to mean the sick person, in the late 14th century, new names were formed for the disease: lepri, leprosity and lepruse are all recorded from the mid-15th century.^[4] Of these leprosy survived, replacing lepry.^[6][10] The English Bibles, from Coverdale's of 1535, used it to translate Biblical Hebrew צרעת (ṣāraʿaṯ), a term for various skin diseases and also for a mould on garments and walls, which the Septuagint had rendered with λέπρα (lépra).^[2][4][1] The word therefore covered many skin diseases at first, and narrowed later to the disease now called Hansen's disease (the name is recorded from 1938), after the Norwegian physician who found its bacillus in 1871.^[4][6] Wiktionary attributes the narrowing largely to this biblical use.^[1] From about 1555 the word was used figuratively for a corrupting influence or the state of being shunned.^[2][13][6] Between 1566 and 1821 it also named skin diseases of horses, such as mange.^{[2][13][2][13]} Johnson (1755) described it as a disease that covers the body with white scales.^[14] In Australian slang leprosy has meant cabbage.^[15]

Timeline

• before 1450 – a scaly or scabby disease of the skin, as lepruse.^[2][12]
• 1535 – in the Coverdale Bible, for the Hebrew name of a skin disease.^[4][2]
• c. 1555 – figurative, a tainting influence; the state of being shunned.^[2][13]
• 1566 – a skin disease of horses (obsolete by 1821).^[2][13]
• 1834 – a leper house (rare, obsolete).^[2][13]
• 1908 – rat leprosy, a disease of rodents.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A chronic infectious disease caused by the bacillus Mycobacterium leprae, which attacks the skin and the nerves and leads to loss of feeling, wasting and deformity; Hansen's disease.^[5][7][2]
2. In translations of the Bible, any of various disfiguring skin diseases.^[6][2]
3. A corrupting moral influence, or the state of being shunned: the leprosy of greed.^[2][6]
4. A disease of rats and other rodents caused by a related bacillus.^[2][5]
5. (obsolete, 1566–1821) A skin disease of horses, such as mange or glanders.^[2][13]

Word family

• leprotic
• antileprosy

Related words

• leper
• leproma
• lepromatous
• leprous
• leprosarium

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ 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
7. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
8. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ a b c d 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. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
12. ^ a b Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
13. ^ a b c d e f g Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
14. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
15. ^ Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com