† lepern.1
Obsolete.
1. = leprosy n. 1.
ΘΚΠ
the world > health and disease > ill health > a disease > disorders of visible parts > skin disorders > [noun] > leprosy
spittle-evil?c1225
leperc1275
meselrya1387
lepraa1398
mesela1400
leprosy?a1450
leprosityc1451
lepryc1475
leperhood1491
leperhead1493
leprousnessa1500
lazaryc1503
meselnessc1520
tyre1547
lepernessa1557
satyriasis1587
lazarousness1648
leontiasis1753
cocobay1788
Hansen's disease1938
c1275 Kentish Serm. in J. Hall Select. Early Middle Eng. (1920) I. 218 Si lepre be tokned þo grete sennen þet biedh diadliche.
c1275 Kentish Serm. in J. Hall Select. Early Middle Eng. (1920) I. 218 For lepre is man deseurd of þo compainie of gode and of alle his angles, þat is to sigge for diadliche senne.
a1325 (c1250) Gen. & Exod. (1968) l. 3690 Ðor wurð ghe ðanne wið lepre smiten.
?c1430 (c1400) J. Wyclif Eng. Wks. (1880) 67 Þe leper of naaman cleuyd to hym..euere aftir.
1483 tr. Adam of Eynsham Reuelation xlv .ii. yonge vyrgyns..ful sore infecte with the grete plage of lepur.
a1500 (?a1425) tr. Secreta Secret. (Lamb.) 81 Wyn þat ys takyn abundanly..norsshes gretnes of body, and..brynges yn lepre.
1525 Ld. Berners tr. J. Froissart Cronycles II. xlii. 132 He was syke of the lypper, so yt his flesshe fell in peces.
1562 W. Turner Bk. Natures Bathes Eng. f. 9, in 2nd Pt. Herball The disease now called Lepre, but Elephantiasis of olde writers.
1567 J. Jewel Def. Apol. Churche Eng. ii. 147 Right so as in the time of Moses lawe he pronounced not, who was cleane of Lepre, who was not, before that he had vewed the colour, the bunches, and al other tokens of that disease.
1659 R. Gell Ess. Amendm. Transl. Bible 311 But if thin, sharpe, and serose humours be mixed with more thick matter, itches arise, which the Greekes call Leichens; which being neglected most speedily pass into a Scab and Lepre.
2. figurative. = leprosy n. 2.
ΘΚΠ
society > morality > moral evil > moral or spiritual degeneration > degrading or impairing morally > [noun] > corrupting > infection > infecting influence
contagionc1386
gleimc1394
lepera1400
taint1623
contagium1654
virus1778
a1400 (c1300) Northern Homily: Serm. on Gospels (Coll. Phys.) in Middle Eng. Dict. at Lepre Man quaim sinne mad vnhale, Hafd noht ben bette of his bale, Bot yef crist..clensed him of leper of sinne.
a1500 (?a1450) Gesta Romanorum (Harl. 7333) (1879) 267 Receyve medicyn of satisfaccion; and thenne þou shalt be clansyd fro all synfull lepr.
1588 A. King tr. P. Canisius Cathechisme or Schort Instr. 90 Nocht to iudge of ye lepre of ye body bot of ye saull.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2012; most recently modified version published online December 2021).
lepern.2adj.
/ˈlɛpə/, U.S. /ˈlɛpər/ A. n.2
1. † b. With the and plural agreement. People with leprosy (considered as a class). Obsolete.
a. A person affected with leprosy.Since the middle of the 20th cent., use of the word leper has been deprecated both by people affected with leprosy and by those caring for them, because of its negative connotations (cf. sense A. 2 and note at leprosy n. 1).
ΘΚΠ
the world > health and disease > ill health > a disease > disorders of visible parts > skin disorders > [noun] > leprosy > person
leprousc1275
meselc1300
lazar1340
lepera1398
Lazarus?a1513
meseled1526
lepress?1541
lazar-man1552
lepered1883
a1398 J. Trevisa tr. Bartholomaeus Anglicus De Proprietatibus Rerum (BL Add. 27944) (1975) I. v. x. 189 To moche fleische in þe forehede wiþ a maner of schinynge and strecchinge of þe skynne is a tokene of corrupcioun, as it fareþ in lepres.
a1450 (c1435) J. Lydgate Life SS. Edmund & Fremund (Harl.) l. 278 in C. Horstmann Altengl. Legenden (1881) 2nd Ser. 419 (MED) Wrouhte myracles, made leprys cleene.
a1500 (?a1450) Gesta Romanorum (Harl. 7333) (1879) 317 (MED) Þe brothir of hure husbond..was a foul lypre.
c1530 A. Barclay Egloges iii. sig. N v Somtyme a leper, is sygned to thy bed.
1594 W. Shakespeare Henry VI, Pt. 2 iii. ii. 75 I am no loathsome leoper [1623 Leaper] looke on me.
a1613 G. Owen Descr. Penbrokshire (1892) 21 Gave certaine landes to the Mawdlens of Tenbye towardes the relieffe of the Leepers.
1638 H. Rogers Protestant Church Existent vi. 37 I would shunne a man that is a leper, and yet not deny him to be a man.
1722 D. Defoe Jrnl. Plague Year 285 Ten Leapers were healed.
1769 E. Bancroft Ess. Nat. Hist. Guiana 385 Lepers are notorious for their salacity and longevity.
1846 R. C. Trench Notes Miracles x. 214 When through the Crusades leprosy had been introduced into Western Europe, it was usual to clothe the leper in a shroud, and to say for him the masses for the dead.
1878 J. Miller Songs Italy 75 Lonely..as a leper cast out.
1948 R. G. Cochrane in Leprosy Rev. 19 39 The Conference of the Leonard Wood Memorial held in Manila in 1931 recommended that the word ‘leper’ should not be used, but I fear this recommendation is completely ignored even by those leprologists who attended the conference.
1975 Daily Tel. 11 Apr. 3/1 He decided to dedicate his life to the Indian people, and for many years was in charge of 13 hospitals, two for lepers.
2006 Time Out N.Y. 16 Nov. 169/3 That's tantamount to sponge-bathing the lepers of Mozambique.
ΚΠ
1533 J. Gau tr. C. Pedersen Richt Vay 63 Ye crippil gangis, ye liper ar maid cleyne.
1578 J. Rolland Seuin Seages 303 All the Lipper thay clappit and thay cryit, Bot at that time all Almous was denyit.
2. figurative. A person to be shunned; a reviled or repulsive person; an outcast.Also with modifying word, as moral, social leper, etc.
ΘΚΠ
society > society and the community > social relations > lack of social communication or relations > exclusion from society > [noun] > rendering outcast > outcast
outcastc1390
outwalea1400
abjection1447
abject1528
overcast1574
rejectament1681
castaway1799
pariah1818
leper1825
cagot1844
Ishmaelite1848
hinin1884
expellee1888
eta1897
Ishmael1899
reject1917
a1555 H. Latimer Frutefull Serm. (1572) ii. 196 Euen as he was a leper of his body, so are we lepers in our soules.
1602 B. Jonson Poetaster v. iii. sig. N Neither shall you at any time..suffer the Itch of writing to ouer-run your performance in Libel; vpon paine of being taken vp for Lepers, in Wit. View more context for this quotation
1667 N. Billingsley Treasury Divine Raptures 51 Such as in heart are pure He loves, but spir't'ual Lepers cann't endure.
1701 G. Stanhope tr. St. Anselm in tr. St. Augustine Pious Breathings 341 And yet see, how this unspotted Innocence was numbred among the transgressors, cast out as a leper from humane conversation, despised and rejected.
1779 London Mag. Nov. 515/1 At sixteen years of age Mr. Scott begin to see that he was a sinner, a leper in every part.
1825 R. Nesbit Diary 28 Nov. in Mem. (1858) i. 23 I have..been afraid to join the society of the pious... I looked upon myself as a leper.
1847 Ld. Tennyson Princess iv. 75 A moral leper, I, To whom none spake.
1913 ‘O. M. Hueffer’ Hunt Slipper (1914) vi. xxii. 251 This feeling that you are regarded as a leper, outside the pale of human sympathy, something to be avoided, overlooked.
1953 Rotarian June 15/2 Are they going to be eyed suspiciously, given a cold ‘Nothing today’ at the employment window, be treated as lepers?
2011 A. Howard Bloodspell vi. 64 I was wondering how someone like you ends up hanging out with Charla, the chatterbox, and my social leper of a sister.
Affected with leprosy; leprous. Obsolete.Some attributive examples here may be interpreted as noun compounds; cf. Compounds 1.
ΘΚΠ
the world > health and disease > ill health > a disease > disorders of visible parts > skin disorders > [adjective] > leprosy > afflicted with
leprous?c1225
meselc1300
leperc1400
meselinga1450
lazar1483
lazarous1536
leprosed1551
lepery1558
meselya1585
lepered1598
meseled1611
belepered1633
lazarly1634
leprosied1840
c1400 (?c1380) Cleanness (1920) l. 1094 Ȝet comen lodly to þat Lede, as lazares monye, Summe lepre, summe lome, and lomerande blynde.
1428 in Rec. Parl. Scotl. to 1707 (2007) 1428/3/9 That na lipir folk, nothir man nor woman, fra thyn furth enter na cum in to na burgh.
c1450 Alphabet of Tales (1904) I. 39 He layed hym down befor þe ya[tt], & knokkid with his tables as lepre men duse.
1484 W. Caxton tr. G. de la Tour-Landry Bk. Knight of Tower (1971) lxviii. 99 God was wrothe with her, and made her to become lepre.
a1505 R. Henryson Test. Cresseid l. 372 in Poems (1981) 123 He luikit on hir vglye lipper face.
a1513 W. Dunbar Flyting in Poems (1998) I. 205 Ane laithly luge that wes the lippir menis.
a1600 A. Montgomerie Sonnets xxxiv Cative Cresside, vhair she lipper lay.
a1646 A. Henderson Serm. (1867) 111 Naaman the Syrian when he was lepper, he comes to the prophet Elisha, to be cleansed by him.
Compounds
C1. General attributive, esp. in the names of institutions used for the isolation and care of people with leprosy, as leper asylum, leper colony, leper hospital, leper lodge, etc.
ΘΚΠ
the world > health and disease > healing > places for the sick or injured > [noun] > hospital or infirmary > leper-house or lazaretto
mesel house?a1400
mesel-cote1402
malantary?a1425
maladerie1461
lazar-cote1470
lazar-house1530
lazaretto1549
lazarus-house1560
leper house1574
pest-house1594
lazaret1611
leprosery1792
leper asylum1818
leprosy1834
leprosarium1869
a1505 R. Henryson Test. Cresseid l. 438 in Poems (1981) 125 This lipper ludge [1532 leper loge] tak for thy burelie bour.
1736 J. M'Ure View City of Glasgow ii. 62 The Houses builded upon that Ground were likewise calld by the Inhabitants adjacent the Leper Hospital.
1774 T. West Antiq. Furness vii. 186 Not only in Furness, but also at Kendal, they served the hospital of St. Leonard's, and the leper-lodge there, till the dissolution.
1818 Friend of India Oct. 195 There are now no less than four philanthropic Institutions, whose funds are derived partly from European partly from Native liberality. These are, the Calcutta School-Book Society; the Calcutta Leper Asylum, [etc.].
1891 C. Creighton Hist. Epidemics Brit. 99 The leper-spitals of Scotland.
1898 Arch. Surg. 9 381 As the country was..a leper centre, some individuals were contaminated.
1950 S. J. Perelman Swiss Family Perelman i. 9 They ranged from sniggered allusions to the bar sinister to reports that we were actually bound for the leper colony at Molokai.
1968 H. O. Mackey & J. P. Mackey Handbk. Dis. Skin (ed. 9) xxiv. 292 Ulnar nerve involvement leads to the characteristic ‘leper claw’.
1974 Times Lit. Suppl. 15 Mar. 263/4 In 1941 the reappearance of leprosy led to the prohibition of the movement of Aborigines below the 20th parallel—the ‘leper line’.
2002 R. Porter Blood & Guts vii. 126 To contain a frightening disease, specialized leper asylums were built, where the ‘unclean’ might be forcibly confined.
C2. † leper's herb n. [after French herbe aux ladres (1550 or earlier)] Obsolete rare a speedwell, probably the heath speedwell, Veronica officinalis, supposed to cure leprosy; also called Paul's betony.
leper house n. now historical a building, hospice, or hospital used for the isolation and care of people with leprosy; cf. lazar-house n.
ΘΚΠ
the world > health and disease > healing > places for the sick or injured > [noun] > hospital or infirmary > leper-house or lazaretto
mesel house?a1400
mesel-cote1402
malantary?a1425
maladerie1461
lazar-cote1470
lazar-house1530
lazaretto1549
lazarus-house1560
leper house1574
pest-house1594
lazaret1611
leprosery1792
leper asylum1818
leprosy1834
leprosarium1869
1574 in J. H. Burton Reg. Privy Council Scotl. (1878) 1st Ser. II. 393 Ane hous callit the lipper hous,..betuix the said burgh and the auld toun of Abirdene.
1659 S. Rutherford Infl. Life of Grace ii. ii. 140 The house of sinful Adam, that we lay claim unto, is a botch-house, and leper-house, and worse.
1779 J. Carver New Universal Traveller 553/2 Castle-martyr..was anciently called Leper's town, as is said, from a leper-house in the neighbourhood.
1855 A. P. Stanley Hist. Memorials Canterbury (1857) ii. 104 This hospital, or leper-house,..was then fresh from the hands of its founder.
1991 A. Nikiforuk Fourth Horseman iii. 30 All of the oldest and most famous infirmaries in France, Italy and England began as leper houses.
leper juice n. now rare fluid obtained from a leproma or other skin lesion of leprosy.
ΚΠ
1884 P. Manson in Lancet 23 Aug. 342/2 From the puncture a droplet of perfectly clear fluid exudes, and is to be transferred to one or more cover-glasses, each cover-glass being smeared with rather a thick layer of the leper juice.
1912 Lepra 12 127 The special media tubes showed a number of acid-fast clumps similar to those found in the leper juice after 14 days.
ΘΚΠ
the world > plants > particular plants > plants and herbs > according to family > Scrophulariaceae (figwort and allies) > [noun] > Veronica or speedwell
lemkea1300
God's eye?a1350
waterlink?a1425
brooklimea1450
fluellin1548
Paul's betony1548
wood-penny1570
water pimpernel1575
ground-hele1578
speedwell1578
wild germander1578
germander chickweed1597
leper's herb1600
lime-wort1666
water purpy1683
water-speedwell1690
beccabunga1706
rock speedwell1719
Welsh speedwell1731
germander speedwell1732
St. Paul's betony1736
vernal speedwell1796
wall speedwell1796
cat's-eye1817
wellink1826
skull-cap1846
forget-me-not1853
veronica1855
angels' eyes1862
horse-cress1879
faverel1884
St. Paul's betony1884
the world > health and disease > healing > medicines or physic > medical preparations of specific origin > medicine composed of a plant > [noun] > plant used in medicine > specific plant
hyssopc1000
sionc1000
tunhoofc1000
poppyOE
camomilea1300
orobusa1398
tithymala1400
tutsana1400
Thapsiac1400
melissa?a1425
hallelujahc1425
turmeric1538
succory1541
balin1546
English treacle1548
treacle mustard1548
rhabarb1558
Thlaspi1562
treacle clover1562
holy herb1567
lungwort1578
solanum1578
lightwort1587
neezing wort1591
Alexander's Foot1597
burst-wort1597
symphonia1597
wound-herb1597
leper's herb1600
all bones1633
schoenanth1633
nip1651
wound-shrub1659
hermodact1678
jusquiam1727
Algerian tea1728
Australian tea1728
strongback1739
silphium1753
belladonna1788
foxglove1801
ledum1822
yercum1826
lungs of oak1856
strong man's weed1864
conium1866
short-long1871
fever grass1875
1600 R. Surflet tr. C. Estienne & J. Liébault Maison Rustique ii. xlii. 266 The often vse, aswell of the iuice, as of the distilled water of Paules betonie, doth perfectly cure the leprosie: whereof we haue a notable and famous testimonie of a French king, who thereby was throughly cured thereof. And this is the cause why this herbe is called the Lepers herbe.
leper window n. (also leper's window) a small window or opening in a church wall, supposedly intended to allow lepers outside to see the elevation of the host.
ΘΚΠ
society > faith > artefacts > division of building (general) > other parts > [noun] > hagioscope
squint1839
hagioscope1840
lychnoscope1843
leper window1850
squint-hole1889
1850 Notes & Queries 1st Ser. 2 111/1 ‘The Leper's window’ through which, it is concluded, the lepers who knelt outside the building witnessed the elevation of the host at the altar.
1882 J. Hardy in Hist. Berwickshire Naturalists' Club 9 No. 3. 470 There was a leper window at Elsdon church.
1937 L. MacNeice Eclogue from Iceland in Poems 96 The leper window reveals a church of lepers.
2002 A. Jones Every Pilgrim's Guide to Great Brit. Ireland 25 There are no windows on the north side, apart from a later small window near the altar, sometimes referred to as a leper's window.
Derivatives
ˈleperdom n. (a) people with leprosy collectively; that which is associated with lepers; (b) the condition of being a leper; also figurative.
ΚΠ
1889 Cornhill Mag. Aug. 141 Curiosities of Leperdom.
1920 Rec. Christian Work July 976/1 The Rev. C. C. Marris has on his heart the problem of the huge mass of leperdom in Kwangsi province, China.
1991 A. Nikiforuk Fourth Horseman iii. 28 Bodel realized that he was bound for the clapper, the alms bowl and leperdom.
2002 L. Osborne Amer. Normal vii. 199 There followed the by-now-familiar saga of Asperger's calamity: odd jobs, firings, a gradual downward spiral to the edges of mental breakdown, and social leperdom.
ˈleperize v. rare transitive to turn into a leper; (now) figurative to cause to be shunned or reviled.
ΘΚΠ
the world > health and disease > ill health > a disease > disorders of visible parts > skin disorders > afflict with or cause a skin disorder [verb (transitive)] > leprosy
leperize1605
lepera1861
1605 J. Sylvester tr. G. de S. Du Bartas Triumph of Faith in tr. Deuine Weekes & Wks. 571 Moses, by Faith doth Myriam leperize.
1967 Arizona Republic 13 Nov. 6/1 Impeachers are ipso facto kooks and should be treated to a sustained public denunciation which will leperize them in the eyes of their fellow citizens.
2010 St. Petersburg (Florida) Times (Nexis) 24 Jan. 1 b These new allegations..are..a sorry attempt by a motivated individual to leperize my client in the court of public opinion.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2012; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
leperv.
/ˈlɛpə/, U.S. /ˈlɛpər/ Now rare.
transitive. To affect as with leprosy; to infect, taint, or disfigure; to ostracize.
ΘΚΠ
the world > health and disease > ill health > a disease > disorders of visible parts > skin disorders > afflict with or cause a skin disorder [verb (transitive)] > leprosy
leperize1605
lepera1861
1602 J. Marston Antonios Reuenge i. v. sig. C2v If he is leapred with so foule a guilt.
1683 J. Reid Scots Gard'ner 94 If it [sc. the ground] be leopared with unskilfull dunging or by noysome weeds that grows about such roots.
a1861 A. H. Clough Dipsychus i. iii, in Lett. & Remains (1865) 158 Some vagrant miscreant meets, and with a look Transmutes me his, and for a whole sick day Lepers me.
1872 Once a Week 16 Mar. 262/1 The Green Lanes gentility—which, as Mrs. Gummer said, had lepered us—became our devoted admirers.
1916 J. Masefield Let. 13 Sept. in Lett. from Front (1984) 130 Now they are ploughed with shells, pock-marked with shells, lepered with shells, on a sort of livid & earthy scab of shell holes which looks like a disease.
1969 R. Coover Pricksongs & Descants 30 Enough that the skin of the world is littered with our contentious artifice, lepered with the stigmata of human aggression and despair, without suffering our songs to be flatted by savagery.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2012; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1c1275
n.2adj.a1398
v.1602