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Word Study
leprosy
CIDE DICTIONARY
leprosy, n. [See Leprous.].
A cutaneous disease which first appears as blebs or as reddish, shining, slightly prominent spots, with spreading edges. These are often followed by an eruption of dark or yellowish prominent nodules, frequently producing great deformity. In one variety of the disease, anæsthesia of the skin is a prominent symptom. In addition there may be wasting of the muscles, falling out of the hair and nails, and distortion of the hands and feet with destruction of the bones and joints. It is incurable, and is probably contagious. [1913 Webster]
" The disease now called leprosy, also designated as Lepra or Lepra Arabum, and Elephantiasis Græcorum, is not the same as the leprosy of the ancients. The latter was, indeed, a generic name for many varieties of skin disease (including our modern leprosy, psoriasis, etc.), some of which, among the Hebrews, rendered a person ceremonially unclean. A variety of leprosy of the Hebrews (probably identical with modern leprosy) was characterized by the presence of smooth, shining, depressed white patches or scales, the hair on which participated in the whiteness, while the skin and adjacent flesh became insensible. It was an incurable disease." [1913 Webster]
OXFORD DICTIONARY
leprosy, n.
1 a contagious bacterial disease that affects the skin, mucous membranes, and nerves, causing disfigurement. Also called HANSEN'S DISEASE.
2 moral corruption or contagion.
1 a contagious bacterial disease that affects the skin, mucous membranes, and nerves, causing disfigurement. Also called HANSEN'S DISEASE.
2 moral corruption or contagion.
Etymology
LEPROUS + -Y(3)
THESAURUS
leprosy
African lethargy, Asiatic cholera, Chagres fever, German measles, Haverhill fever, acne, acne vulgaris, acute articular rheumatism, ague, alkali disease, amebiasis, amebic dysentery, anthrax, bacillary dysentery, bastard measles, black death, black fever, blackwater fever, breakbone fever, brucellosis, bubonic plague, cachectic fever, cerebral rheumatism, chicken pox, cholera, cowpox, dandy fever, deer fly fever, dengue, dengue fever, dermamycosis, dermatitis, dermatosis, diphtheria, dumdum fever, dysentery, eczema, elephantiasis, encephalitis lethargica, enteric fever, epithelioma, erysipelas, erythema, exanthem, famine fever, five-day fever, flu, frambesia, glandular fever, grippe, hansenosis, heat rash, hepatitis, herpes, herpes simplex, herpes zoster, histoplasmosis, hives, hookworm, hydrophobia, impetigo, infantile paralysis, infectious mononucleosis, inflammatory rheumatism, influenza, itch, jail fever, jungle rot, kala azar, kissing disease, lepra, leptospirosis, lichen, lichen primus, loa loa, loaiasis, lockjaw, lupus, lupus vulgaris, madness, malaria, malarial fever, marsh fever, measles, meningitis, miliaria, milzbrand, mumps, ornithosis, osteomyelitis, paratyphoid fever, parotitis, parrot fever, pemphigus, pertussis, pneumonia, polio, poliomyelitis, polyarthritis rheumatism, ponos, prickly heat, pruigo, pruritus, psittacosis, psora, rabbit fever, rabies, rat-bite fever, relapsing fever, rheumatic fever, rickettsialpox, ringworm, rubella, rubeola, scabies, scarlatina, scarlet fever, schistosomiasis, septic sore throat, shingles, skin cancer, sleeping sickness, sleepy sickness, smallpox, snail fever, splenic fever, spotted fever, strep throat, swamp fever, tetanus, tetter, thrush, tinea, trench fever, trench mouth, tuberculosis, tularemia, typhoid, typhoid fever, typhus, typhus fever, undulant fever, vaccinia, varicella, variola, venereal disease, viral dysentery, whooping cough, yaws, yellow fever, yellow jack, zona, zosterROGET THESAURUS
leprosy
Disease
N disease, illness, sickness, ailing, all the ills that flesh is heir to, morbidity, morbosity, infirmity, ailment, indisposition, complaint, disorder, malady, distemper, distemperature, visitation, attack, seizure, stroke, fit, delicacy, loss of health, invalidation, cachexy, cachexia, atrophy, marasmus, indigestion, dyspepsia, decay, decline, consumption, palsy, paralysis, prostration, taint, pollution, infection, sepsis, septicity, infestation, epidemic, pandemic, endemic, epizootic, murrain, plague, pestilence, pox, sore, ulcer, abscess, fester, boil, pimple, wen, carbuncle, gathering, imposthume, peccant humor, issue, rot, canker, cold sore, fever sore, cancer, carcinoma, leukemia, neoplastic disease, malignancy, tumor, caries, mortification, corruption, gangrene, sphacelus, sphacelation, leprosy, eruption, rash, breaking out, fever, temperature, calenture, inflammation, ague, angina pectoris, appendicitis, Asiatic cholera, spasmodic cholera, biliary calculus, kidney stone, black death, bubonic plague, pneumonic plague, blennorrhagia, blennorrhoea, blood poisoning, bloodstroke, bloody flux, brash, breakbone fever, dengue fever, malarial fever, Q-fever, heart attack, cardiac arrest, cardiomyopathy, hardening of the arteries, arteriosclerosis, atherosclerosis, bronchocele, canker rash, cardialgia, carditis, endocarditis, cholera, asphyxia, chlorosis, chorea, cynanche, dartre, enanthem, enanthema, erysipelas, exanthem, exanthema, gallstone, goiter, gonorrhea, green sickness, grip, grippe, influenza, flu, hay fever, heartburn, heaves, rupture, hernia, hemorrhoids, piles, herpes, itch, king's evil, lockjaw, measles, mumps, polio, necrosis, pertussis, phthisis, pneumonia, psora, pyaemia, pyrosis, quinsy, rachitis, ringworm, rubeola, St. Vitus's dance, scabies, scarlatina, scarlet fever, scrofula, seasickness, struma, syntexis, tetanus, tetter, tonsillitis, tonsilitis, tracheocele, trachoma, trismus, varicella, varicosis, variola, water qualm, whooping cough, yellow fever, yellow jack, fatal disease, dangerous illness, galloping consumption, churchyard cough, general breaking up, break up of the system, idiocy insanity, martyr to disease, cripple, the halt the lame and the blind, valetudinary, valetudinarian, invalid, patient, case, sickroom, sick- chamber, pathology, etiology, nosology, anthrax, bighead, blackleg, blackquarter, cattle plague, glanders, mange, scrapie, milk sickness, heartworm, feline leukemia, roundworms, quarter-evil, quarter-ill, rinderpest, virus, bacterium, bacteria, DNA virus, RNA virus, rhinovirus, rhabdovirus, picornavirus, herpesvirus, cytomegalovirus, CMV, human immunodefficiency virus, HIV, diseased, ailing, ill, ill of, taken ill, seized with, indisposed, unwell, sick, squeamish, poorly, seedy, affected with illness, afflicted with illness, laid up, confined, bedridden, invalided, in hospital, on the sick list, out of health, out of sorts, under the weather, valetudinary, unsound, unhealthy, sickly, morbid, morbose, healthless, infirm, chlorotic, unbraced, drooping, flagging, lame, crippled, halting, morbid, tainted, vitiated, peccant, contaminated, poisoned, tabid, mangy, leprous, cankered, rotten, rotten to the core, rotten at the core, withered, palsied, paralytic, dyspeptic, luetic, pneumonic, pulmonic, phthisic, rachitic, syntectic, syntectical, tabetic, varicose, touched in the wind, broken-winded, spavined, gasping, hors de combat, weakly, weakened, decrepit, decayed, incurable, in declining health, cranky, in a bad way, in danger, prostrate, moribund, morbific epidemic, endemic, zymotic.Also see definition of "leprosy" in Bible Study Dictionaries
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