lepus

See also: Lepus

Latin

lepus (a hare)

Etymology

Unknown; not an Indo-European word. Perhaps of Iberian or Celtiberian substrate origin and related to Massaliot λεβηρίς (lebērís).

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈle.pus/, [ˈɫɛ.pʊs]

• Audio (Classical)

  (file)

Noun

lepus m (genitive leporis); third declension

1. a hare
   • 8 CE, Ovid, Metamorphoses 15.100

     et lepus inpavidus mediis erravit in arvis

     and hares wandered, unafraid, among the fields

   Sextus videt leporem. ― Sextus sees the hare.

2. a poisonous sea fish colored like the hare
   • c. 77 CE – 79 CE, Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia 32.3

     Non sunt minus mira quae de lepore marino traduntur.

     No less wonderful, too, are the particulars which we find stated relative to the sea-hare.

3. (astronomy) the constellation Lepus
   • Hyginus, De Astronomia

     Leporis autem hanc historiam memoriae prodiderunt.

     The following story of the hare has been recorded.

Inflection

Third declension.

Case	Singular	Plural
nominative	lepus	leporēs
genitive	leporis	leporum
dative	leporī	leporibus
accusative	leporem	leporēs
ablative	lepore	leporibus
vocative	lepus	leporēs

Coordinate terms

• (hare): cunīculus, dasypūs

Derived terms

• leporārius
• leporīnus
• lepusculus

Descendants

• Albanian: lepur
• Aromanian: ljepuri
• Asturian: llebre
• Catalan: llebre
• Dalmatian: lipro
• English: Lepus
• French: lièvre
• Friulian: jeur
• Galician: lebre
• Italian: lepre
• Norman: lièvre

• Ladin: liever
• Occitan: lèbre
• Portuguese: lebre
• Romanian: iepure
• Romansch: lieur
• Sardinian: lèpuri
• Spanish: liebre
• Translingual: Lepus
• Venetian: jévre, liéore
• Walloon: live

References

• lepus in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• lepus in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• du Cange, Charles (1883), “lepus”, in G. A. Louis Henschel, Pierre Carpentier, Léopold Favre, editors, Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (in Latin), Niort: L. Favre
• “lepus” in Félix Gaffiot’s Dictionnaire Illustré Latin-Français, Hachette (1934)

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Lithuanian

Adjective

lepùs m (feminine lepì) stress pattern 4

1. fastidious, spoilt

   Jis lepus ir visada galvoja tik apie save

   He is so fastidious and always thinking only about himself.