Leprechaun
noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 One of a race of elves that can reveal hidden treasure to those who catch them. Irish
"Do you not catch the tiny clamour, / Busy click of an elfin hammer, / Voice of the leprechaun singing shrill, / As he merrily plies his trade?"
- 2 a mischievous elf in Irish folklore wordnet
Example
More examples"Do you not catch the tiny clamour, / Busy click of an elfin hammer, / Voice of the leprechaun singing shrill, / As he merrily plies his trade?"
Etymology
From Irish leipreachán, luprachán, from Middle Irish luchrupán, from Old Irish luchorpán. See also Irish lucharachán. The word's further etymology is disputed; it is traditionally explained as a compound containing lú (“small”, from Proto-Indo-European *h₁lengʷʰ-) + corp (“body”, which is from Latin corpus). However, an alternative suggestion is that it is a derivative of Latin Lupercī (“priests of Lupercus”), who were misinterpreted as an antediluvian species by medieval Irish scholars.
More for "leprechaun"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.