leprous

American  

[lep-ruhs] / ˈlɛp rəs /

adjective

1. Pathology. affected with leprosy.

2. of or resembling leprosy.

3. Botany, Zoology. covered with scales.

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leprous British  

/ ˈlɛprəs /

adjective

1. having leprosy

2. relating to or resembling leprosy

3. biology a less common word for leprose

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Usage

What does leprous mean? Leprous is an adjective used to describe someone with leprosy, an infectious skin disease. Leprous can also mean resembling or relating to leprosy. Leprosy causes bumps and wounds on and under the skin that gradually spread and can cause muscle weakness, nerve damage, and paralysis. If not treated effectively, it can result in the loss of body parts and eventually death. Leprosy is also called Hansen’s disease, which is the name preferred by many medical professionals. It’s caused by a kind of bacteria called Mycobacterium leprae. It can be cured with a treatment of antibiotics and other drugs. Cases of leprosy have been documented since ancient times. Due to its severe effects and contagiousness, many people who have had the disease throughout history have been stigmatized and treated as outcasts. Historically, the word leper has been used to refer to a person with leprosy. Due to the stigma, it came to be used in a more figurative way to mean an outcast or someone who is excluded, especially for behavior or opinions considered unacceptable. Though it’s much less common, the adjective leprous can also be used in this way, as in Ever since I expressed my opinion, I’ve been treated as leprous around here. However, both the figurative and literal senses of leper can be considered insensitive due to the fact that they can dehumanize those who have the disease. Although the term leprous patient is sometimes used to refer to someone with the disease, it is typically recommended to use a phrase like “a person with Hansen’s disease.”

Other Word Forms

• leprously adverb
• leprousness noun
• nonleprous adjective
• nonleprously adverb

Etymology

Origin of leprous

First recorded in 1175–1225; Middle English word from Late Latin word leprōsus. See leper, -ous

Example Sentences

There’s something mordantly catchy about the chorus’s repetitious melody, and the lyrics are full of his trademark hippy phantasmagoria: “Temperature’s dropping at the rotten oasis / Stealing kisses from the leprous faces.”

From The Guardian • Jul. 2, 2020

It’s a curious ceramic confab of smooth, terracotta planes and a leprous soft mass, rosy as an internal organ, and sprouting puckered tentacles.

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 29, 2019

A symptom of the diseased body maps onto a common target and eventually it sticks; dangerous ideas become cancers, cities become blighted, pay raises become measly, and moldy stone façades become leprous.

From Slate • Jan. 22, 2013

Ben had no concept of time, but suffice it to say this meant his feet had looked leprous for a good long while.

From Salon • Jul. 3, 2012

The dolphin was cold and a leprous gray-white now in the starlight and the old man skinned one side of him while he held his right foot on the fish’s head.

From "The Old Man and The Sea" by Ernest Hemingway