leper
[lep-er]
- a person who has leprosy.
- a person who has been rejected or ostracized for unacceptable behavior, opinions, character, or the like; anathema; outcast.
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Origin of leper
1350–1400; Middle English lepre leprosy < Latin lepra < Greek lépra, noun use of feminine of leprós scaly, akin to lépos scale, lépein to peel
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for leper
Contemporary Examples
After being forced to fly next to this leper, their disgust is palpable.
I read a little more than they did, so I could say, “Touch me not, leper!”
Historical Examples
The leper himself would never have dreamed of his touching him.
Weighed and WantingGeorge MacDonald
Cass, the teller, certainly shunned him as he would a leper.
ThoroughbredsW. A. Fraser
Money is a disease that he spreads when he walks, like the scales that fall from a leper.
The Flockmaster of Poison CreekGeorge W. Ogden
No; he must himself warn Dom Diego that he was a leper—a pariah.
Dreamers of the GhettoI. Zangwill
Ay, but the fault was theirs who drove him to it, leaving him only a leper's life.
Dreamers of the GhettoI. Zangwill
leper
- a person who has leprosy
- derogatory a person who is ignored or despised
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Word Origin
C14: via Late Latin from Greek lepra, noun use of lepros scaly, from lepein to peel
usage
Rather than talking about a leper or lepers, it is better to talk about a person with leprosy and people with leprosy
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for leper
n.
"one afflicted with leprosy," late 14c., from Late Latin lepra, from Greek lepra "leprosy," from fem. of lepros (adj.) "scaly," from leops "a scale," related to lepein "to peel," from lopos "a peel," from PIE root *lep- "to peel, scale" (see leaf (n.)). Originally the word for the disease itself (mid-13c.); because of the -er ending it came to mean "person with leprosy," so leprosy was coined 16c. from adjective leprous.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
leper
(lĕp′ər)- One who has leprosy.
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The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.