- leper
[leper 词源字典] - leper: [13] Etymologically, a person suffering from leprosy has ‘scaly’ skin. The Greek word for ‘scale’ was lépos or lepís. From them was derived the adjective leprós ‘scaly’, whose feminine form léprā was used as a noun meaning ‘leprosy’. This passed via Latin lepra and Old French lepre into English as leper, where it still denoted ‘leprosy’. In the 14th century it came to be used for a ‘person suffering from leprosy’.
[leper etymology, leper origin, 英语词源] - leper (n.)
- "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.
