λέπρα

Ancient Greek

Alternative forms

λέπρη (léprē) — Ionic

Etymology

Resembles λεπίς (lepís, “scale”) +‎ *-ρᾱ (*-rā), but with unclear morphology. Perhaps both words are ultimately Pre-Greek; compare λεβηρῐ́ς (lebērĭ́s, “shed skin”), and see λέπω (lépō, “to peel”) for more.^[1]

Pronunciation

(5^th BCE Attic) IPA^(key): /lé.praː/
(1^st CE Egyptian) IPA^(key): /ˈle.pra/
(4^th CE Koine) IPA^(key): /ˈle.pra/
(10^th CE Byzantine) IPA^(key): /ˈle.pra/
(15^th CE Constantinopolitan) IPA^(key): /ˈle.pra/

Noun

λέπρᾱ • (léprā) f (genitive λέπρᾱς); first declension

(medicine) psoriasis & similar skin disorders
(Koine, medicine) leprosy

Inflection

First declension of ἡ λέπρᾱ; τῆς λέπρᾱς (Attic)

Case / #	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	ἡ λέπρᾱ hē léprā	τὼ λέπρᾱ tṑ léprā	αἱ λέπραι hai léprai
Genitive	τῆς λέπρᾱς tês léprās	τοῖν λέπραιν toîn léprain	τῶν λεπρῶν tôn leprôn
Dative	τῇ λέπρᾳ tēî léprāi	τοῖν λέπραιν toîn léprain	ταῖς λέπραις taîs léprais
Accusative	τὴν λέπρᾱν tḕn léprān	τὼ λέπρᾱ tṑ léprā	τᾱ̀ς λέπρᾱς tā̀s léprās
Vocative	λέπρᾱ léprā	λέπρᾱ léprā	λέπραι léprai
Notes:	This table gives Attic inflectional endings. For declension in other dialects, see Appendix:Ancient Greek dialectal declension.

Descendants

→ Latin: lepra (see there for further descendants)

References

^ Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010) “λέπω (> DER > A > 2. > λέπρα)”, in Etymological Dictionary of Greek (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 10), with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, pages 848-50

“λέπρα”, in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
“λέπρα”, in Liddell & Scott (1889) An Intermediate Greek–English Lexicon, New York: Harper & Brothers
λέπρα in Bailly, Anatole (1935) Le Grand Bailly: Dictionnaire grec-français, Paris: Hachette
Bauer, Walter et al. (2001) A Greek–English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, Third edition, Chicago: University of Chicago Press
G3014 in Strong, James (1979) Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance to the Bible
λέπρα, in ΛΟΓΕΙΟΝ [Logeion] Dictionaries for Ancient Greek and Latin (in English, French, Spanish, German, Dutch and Chinese), University of Chicago, since 2011

[1] Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010) “λέπω (> DER > A > 2. > λέπρα)”, in Etymological Dictionary of Greek (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 10), with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, pages 848-50

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