leprechaun的词源

英文词源

leprechaun: leprechaun: [17] Leprechaun means literally ‘little body’. It comes from an Irish compound noun made up of the adjective lu ‘little’ and corp ‘body’ (a borrowing from Latin corpus). Its original Old Irish form was luchorpán, and in modern Irish this became leipracán. The first record of its use in English is in Thomas Middleton’s Honest whore 1604: ‘as for your Irish lubrican, that spirit whom by preposterous charms thy lust hath rais’d in a wrong circle’.
=> corpse
leprechaun (n.): c. 1600, from Irish lupracan, metathesis of Old Irish luchorpan literally "a very small body," from lu "little" (from PIE *legwh- "having little weight;" see light (adj.)) + corpan, diminutive of corp "body," from Latin corpus "body" (see corporeal). Commonly spelled lubrican in 17c. English. Leithbragan is Irish folk etymology, from leith "half" + brog "brogue," because the spirit was "supposed to be always employed in making or mending a single shoe."

来自爱尔兰语lupracan,置换自luchorpan,小矮人，来自lu-,小的，轻的，词源同light,corpan,身体，体形，词源同corporal.用于指爱尔兰传说中的魔法精灵。

该词的英语词源请访问趣词词源英文版：leprechaun 词源，leprechaun 含义。