lepus

See also: Lepus

Latin

lepus (a hare)

Etymology

Unknown. Perhaps not an Indo-European word. It may be of Iberian origin, or else of Celtiberian substrate origin and related to Massaliot λεβηρίς (lebērís).

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈle.pus/, [ˈɫ̪ɛpʊs̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈle.pus/, [ˈlɛːpus]

• Audio (Classical)

  (file)

Noun

lepus m (genitive leporis); third declension

1. a hare

   Sextus videt leporem. ― Sextus sees the hare.

   • 43 BCE – c. 17 CE, Ovid, Metamorphoses 15.100:

     et lepus inpavidus mediīs errāvit in arvīs

     and hares wandered, unafraid, among the fields

2. a poisonous sea fish colored like the hare
   • 23 CE – 79 CE, Pliny the Elder, Nātūrālis Historia 32.3:

     Nōn sunt minus mīra quae dē lepore marīnō trāduntur.

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

3. (astronomy) the constellation Lepus
   • Hyginus, Dē Astronomiā :

     Leporis autem hanc historiam memoriae prōdidērunt.

     The following story of the Hare has been recorded.

Declension

Third-declension noun.

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

• Corsican: levra, leura, lepra, levura, lefra, levru
• Dalmatian: lipro
• Eastern Romance:
  • Aromanian: ljepuri, ljepure, ljepur, ljepuru, l'epuru
  • Romanian: iepure
• Gallurese: lepparu
• Italian: lepre
• Navarro-Aragonese:
  • Aragonese: liebre
• Old French: lievre, levre
  • Middle French: lievre
    • French: lièvre
  • Norman: lièvre
  • Walloon: live
  • ⇒ Anglo-Norman: levret
    • → English: leveret
• Old Leonese:
  • Asturian: llebre
• Old Occitan:
  • Catalan: llebre
  • Occitan: lèbre
• Old Galician-Portuguese: lebre
  • Galician: lebre
  • Portuguese: lebre
• Old Spanish: liebre
  • Spanish: liebre
    • → Tagalog: liyebre
• Piedmontese: levr
• Padanian:
  • Romagnol: lēvra (Ville Unite) lìvri (San Marino)
• Rhaeto-Romance:
  • Friulian: jeur
  • Ladin: liever
  • Romansch: lieur
• Sardinian: lèpere, lèpuri
• Sassarese: lepparu
• Sicilian: lepru, dièvuru, lebbru
  • → Maltese: liebru
• Venetian: liéore, liévore, jévre
• → Albanian: lepur
• Translingual: Lepus

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
• lepus in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• lepus in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette

Lithuanian

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

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.