leprous
Meanings
- Of or relating to one of the diseases known as leprosy.
- Infected with one of the diseases known as leprosy.
- Similar to leprosy or its symptoms.
- Having the appearance of the skin of one infected with leprosy; flaking, peeling, scabby, scurfy.
- Immoral, or corrupted or tainted in some manner; also, ostracized, shunned.
- Of gold or other metals: contaminated with other substances; impure.
- Synonym of leprose (“covered with thin scurfy scales, scaly-looking”).
- Causing leprosy or a disease resembling it.
Pronunciation
Word forms
Etymology
From Middle English leprous (“having leprosy or a skin disease with symptoms like leprosy; (alchemy) of metals or minerals: impure; a leper”) [and other forms], from Anglo-Norman leprous, lepros [and other forms], Middle French lepros, lepreux, and Old French leprous, lepros (“having leprosy; a leper”) (modern French lépreux), and from their etymon Late Latin leprosus (“having leprosy; (alchemy) of metals: impure; a leper”), from Latin lepra (“leprosy”) + -ōsus (suffix meaning ‘full of; overly; prone to’ forming adjectives from nouns). Lepra is derived from Ancient Greek λέπρᾱ (léprā, “leprosy”), from λεπῐ́ς (lepĭ́s, “flake, scale; epithelial debris”) (perhaps from λέπω (lépō, “to peel, strip off a husk or rind”) + -ῐς (-ĭs, suffix forming feminine nouns)) + -ᾱ (-ā, suffix forming action nouns from verbs).