leper

From Middle English lepre, leprosy, from Old French [Term?], from Latin leprae, lepra, from Ancient Greek λέπρα (lépra).

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• Rhymes: -ɛpə(ɹ)

leper (plural lepers)

1. A person who has leprosy, a person suffering from Hansen's disease.
2. (figurative) Synonym of outcast: A person who is shunned, a pariah.

• leper colony
• moral leper

leper (third-person singular simple present lepers, present participle lepering, simple past and past participle lepered)

1. (now rare) To afflict with leprosy.
2. (figurative, now rare) Synonym of infect.
3. (figurative, now rare) Synonym of disfigure.
4. (figurative, now rare) Synonym of taint.
5. (figurative, now rare) Synonym of ostracize.

• “leper, v.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, 2022.
• Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “leper”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.
• “leper”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

• Epler, Lepre, repel