leper

[lep-er]

See more synonyms for leper on Thesaurus.com

noun

a person who has leprosy.
a person who has been rejected or ostracized for unacceptable behavior, opinions, character, or the like; anathema; outcast.

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

Related Words for leper

untouchable, anathema, outcast

Examples from the Web for leper

Contemporary Examples of leper

After being forced to fly next to this leper, their disgust is palpable.
Hallucinating Away a Heroin Addiction
Abby Haglage
May 4, 2014
I read a little more than they did, so I could say, “Touch me not, leper!”
Mel Brooks Is Always Funny and Often Wise in This 1975 Playboy Interview
Alex Belth
February 16, 2014

Historical Examples of leper

The leper himself would never have dreamed of his touching him.
Weighed and Wanting
George MacDonald
Cass, the teller, certainly shunned him as he would a leper.
Thoroughbreds
W. A. Fraser
Money is a disease that he spreads when he walks, like the scales that fall from a leper.
The Flockmaster of Poison Creek
George W. Ogden
No; he must himself warn Dom Diego that he was a leper—a pariah.
Dreamers of the Ghetto
I. Zangwill
Ay, but the fault was theirs who drove him to it, leaving him only a leper's life.
Dreamers of the Ghetto
I. Zangwill

British Dictionary definitions for leper

leper

noun

a person who has leprosy
derogatory a person who is ignored or despised

Word Origin for leper

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 Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for leper

"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.

leper in Medicine

leper

[lĕp′ər]

One who has leprosy.