lepus

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.

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, 1883–1887)
• lepus in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire Illustré Latin-Français, Hachette

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.