leprous
Meanings
Adjective
- relating to or resembling or having leprosy
Adj
- 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.
Origin / 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).
Synonyms
lazar, lazarlike, lepered, lepric, leproid, lepromatic, lepromatoid, lepromatous, leprose, leprosed, leprosied, leprotic, mesel
Scrabble Score: 9
leprous is a valid Scrabble (US) TWL wordleprous is a valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
leprous is a valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary