Standard Lemma guide
Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.
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noun
An infectious disease caused by the bacterium Mycobacterium leprae, gradually producing nerve damage and patches of skin necrosis and historically handled by permanently quarantining its sufferers.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: uncountable, usually
Topics: medicine, pathology, sciences
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Similar contagious skin diseases causing light patches of scaly skin, particularly psoriasis, syphilis, vitiligo, scabies, and (biblical) the various diseases considered "tzaraath" in the Old Testament.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: dated, proscribed, uncountable, usually
Topics: medicine, sciences
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Anything considered similarly permanent, harmful, and communicable, particularly when such a thing should be handled by avoidance or isolation of its victims.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: figuratively, uncountable, usually
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
A contagious disease causing similar effects in animals, particularly
Ellipsis of murine leprosy or feline leprosy (“diseases caused in rodents and cats by Mycobacterium lepraemurium”).
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: abbreviation, alt-of, ellipsis, uncountable, usually
Qualifier: veterenary medicine
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
A contagious disease causing similar effects in animals, particularly
Synonym of mange and glanders in horses.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: obsolete, uncountable, usually
Qualifier: veterenary medicine
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: mange and glanders in horses
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Synonym of leprosarium: a place for the housing of lepers in isolation from the rest of society.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: obsolete, rare, uncountable, usually
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: leprosarium
Antonyms: none provided
noun
chronic granulomatous communicable disease occurring in tropical and subtropical regions; characterized by inflamed nodules beneath the skin and wasting of body parts; caused by the bacillus Mycobacterium leprae
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: Hansen's disease
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: infectious disease
Narrower terms: tuberculoid leprosy, lepromatous leprosy
History
From Norman leprosie, from Middle French leprosie (“leprosy & similar skin diseases”), probably from leprous (“leprous”) + -ie (“-y”) but possibly from Medieval Latin leprōsia (leprōsus + -ia) although this only historically attested in reference to leprosariums. The shift of sense from psoriasis to Hansen's disease occurred in large part from the use of λέπρα (lépra) to translate Hebrew צרעת (“tzaraath”) in the Septuagint and its subsequent use in the New Testament and Late Latin.
Across languages
150 source translations are retained for this English entry.
