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leprechaun

 
Dictionary: lep·re·chaun   (lĕp'rĭ-kŏn', -kôn') pronunciation
 
n.

One of a race of elves in Irish folklore who can reveal hidden treasure to those who catch them.

[Irish Gaelic luprachán, alteration of Middle Irish luchrupán, from Old Irish luchorpán : luchorp (lú-, small + corp, body, from Latin corpus) + -án, diminutive suff.]

leprechaunish lep're·chaun'ish adj.

WORD HISTORY   Nothing seems more Irish than the leprechaun; yet hiding within the word leprechaun is a word from another language entirely. If we look back beyond Modern Irish Gaelic luprachán and Middle Irish luchrupán to Old Irish luchorpán, we can see the connection. Luchorpán is a compound of Old Irish lú, meaning “small,” and the Old Irish word corp, “body.” Corp is borrowed from Latin corpus (which we know from habeas corpus). Here is a piece of evidence attesting to the deep influence of Church Latin on the Irish language. Although the word is old in Irish it is fairly new in English, being first recorded in 1604.


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Leprechaun, illustration by George Denham, from The Irish Fairy Book by …
(click to enlarge)
Leprechaun, illustration by George Denham, from The Irish Fairy Book by … (credit: Courtesy of the Folklore Society Library, University College, London; photograph, R.B. Fleming)
In Irish folklore, a fairy in the form of a tiny old man wearing a cocked hat and leather apron. Solitary by nature, leprechauns lived in remote places and worked as shoemakers. Each was believed to possess a hidden crock of gold. If captured and threatened, a leprechaun might reveal the gold's hiding place, provided his captor never took his eyes off him. Usually the captor was tricked into glancing away, and the leprechaun vanished. The word derives from the Old Irish luchorpan ("little body").

For more information on leprechaun, visit Britannica.com.

 
Celtic Mythology: leprechaun
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leprecaun, lepracaun, leipreachán
[cf. MidIr. luchorpán, small body; Modern Irish leipreachán, luprachán];

Parallel regional and archaic forms: lochramán, loimreachán, loragádán, lubrican, luchragán, luchramán, luprecan, lúracán, lurgadán, lurikeen. Male, solitary fairy, a guardian of hidden treasure, of Irish literary and oral tradition whose original identity is now hopelessly obscured by two centuries of commercial and sometimes artistic transmogrification far from the roots of Gaelic culture. Contrary to popular perception, the leprechaun is by no means representative of the entire realm of the Irish fairy nor is he its most striking instance within Irish tradition. Obscured also are the now archaic regional variations, mostly pre-dating the mid-19th century. The leprechaun's dominance as perceived from outside Irish tradition derives from the great popular reception of the works of T. Crofton Croker, especially Fairy Legends and Traditions of the South of Ireland (1825), and prestigious literary adaptations, notably William Allingham's poem ‘Lepracaun’ (c.1870), Lady Wilde's Ancient Legends… of Ireland (1887), James Stephens' Crock of Gold (1912), and the American musical partially based on Stephens, Finian's Rainbow (1947).

The earliest anticipation of the leprechaun comes in the depiction of the water sprites, luchoirp or luchorpán, depicted in the 8th century text Echtra Fergusa maic Léti [The Adventure of Fergus son of Léte]. In the narrative Fergus is sleeping in his chariot by the seaside when the sprites lift him up, separated from his sword, and carry him over the water. When he seizes hold of three of them, they promise to share their skills in swimming as a condition of their release. This portrayal, coupled with earlier glossaries stressing north Leinster spellings, suggests that initially the leprechaun was an aquatic or at least amphibious creature. But several comparable terms from different parts of Ireland suggest other associations. From elsewhere in Leinster: loimreachán, lúracán. From Connacht: lúracán. From Munster: luchragán, lurgadán. From Ulster: luchramán. Perhaps contributing to these conceptions are the monstrous lupracánaig of the pseudo-history Lebor Gabála [Book of Invasions], begotten by the biblical Ham as a result of the curse put upon him by his father Noah.

From the time of Crofton Croker's Fairy Legends (1825) the leprechaun has often been confused with two other solitary fairies known by Hiberno-English names, the cluricaune, who drinks, smokes, and haunts cellars, and the mischievous far darrig. Abundant evidence now exists to demonstrate that the leprechaun flourished in oral tradition before the 19th century. There are allusions to the figure in the place-names Knocknalooricaun [hill of the leprechauns] near Lismore, Co. Waterford, and Poulaluppercadaun [pool of the leprechaun] near Killorglin, Co. Kerry. The anglicization lubrican appeared in 1604. The leprechaun recovered from Irish tradition lacks the high spirits and insouciance of his literary and commercial simulacra. Instead, he (there are no females) is often dour, even saturnine. Ugly and stunted with a face like a dried apple, the leprechaun may be querulous, sottish, and foul-mouthed. In his single best-known story, known in many variations, the leprechaun while busy shoemaking is seized by an ordinary mortal, demanding to known where the crock of gold is kept. If the mortal can keep his eyes on the leprechaun without being distracted, the gold will be his. The wily leprechaun, however, can always distract the mortal, often by appealing to his cupidity or gullibility so that the loser blames himself. Other motifs, such as the leprechaun's sitting on a toadstool, red Galway beard, green hat, etc., are clearly inventions, but some are borrowings from European folklore, especially the German household spirit, the kobold. Some portrayals of the leprechaun's adventures in the household may have entered Ulster folklore from the brownie of Scottish settlers. See also GANCONER. Folk motifs: D1455; D1470; D1520; F369.4; F451.0.1; K415.

Bibliography

  • D. A. Binchy, ‘The Saga of Fergus, Son of Léti’, Ériu, 16 (1952), 33–48
  • ‘Echtra Fergusa maic Léti’, in Irish Sagas, ed. Myles Dillon (Cork, 1968), 40–52
  • James Carney, Studies in Irish Literature and History (Dublin, 1955), 103–10
  • Diarmaid Ó Giollán, ‘An Leipreachán San Ainmníocht’, Béaloideas, 50 (1982), 126–50
  • ‘The Leipreachán and Fairies, Dwarfs and the Household Familiar: A Comparative Study’, Béaloideas, 52 (1984), 75–150
 
Columbia Encyclopedia: leprechaun
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leprechaun (lĕp'rəkŏn) , Irish fairy represented as a tiny old man. Leprechauns are mischievous and elusive creatures, said to possess buried crocks of gold, the location of which they will reveal if forced.


 
Mythology Dictionary: leprechauns
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In the folklore of Ireland, little men who resemble elves. Supposedly, leprechauns can reveal — but only to someone clever enough to catch them — the location of buried treasure, typically a crock of gold hidden at the end of the rainbow.

 
Wikipedia: Leprechaun
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A modern stereotypical depiction of a Leprechaun of the type popularised in the 20th century.

In Irish folklore, a leprechaun (Irish: leipreachán) is a type of male fairy, usually taking the form of an old man who enjoys partaking in mischief. Like other fairy creatures, they have been linked to the Tuatha Dé Danann of Irish mythology.[1]

Popular depiction shows them as being no taller than a small child. Their trade is that of a cobbler or shoemaker. They are said to be very rich, having much buried treasure.

Contents

Etymology

The name leprechaun derives from the Irish word leipreachán, defined by Patrick Dinneen as "a pigmy, a sprite, a leprechaun". The further derivation is less certain; according to most sources, the word is thought to be a corruption of Old Irish luchorpán or luchorp, from the roots small and corp body.[2] The root corp, which was borrowed from the Latin corpus, attests to the early influence of Church Latin on the Irish language.[3] The alternative spelling leithprachán is due to the a folk etymology that would derive the word from leith half and bróg shoe, according to the frequent portrayal of the leprechaun as working on a single shoe.[4]

Alternative spellings in English have included lubrican, leprehaun, and lepreehawn. The first recorded instance of the word in the English language was in Dekker's The Honest Whore, Part 2 (1604): "As for your Irish lubrican, that spirit / Whom by preposterous charms thy lust hath rais'd / In a wrong circle."[4]

Folklore

A leprechaun counts his gold in this engraving c. 1900

The leprechaun is said to be a solitary creature, whose principal occupation is making and mending shoes, and who enjoys practical jokes. According to Yeats, the great wealth of these fairies comes from the "treasure-crocks, buried of old in war-time", which they have uncovered and appropriated.[5] According to McAnally the leprechaun is the son of an "evil spirit" and a "degenerate fairy" and is "not wholly good nor wholly evil".[6]

They like to hide their gold in secret locations which can only be revealed if a person were to capture and interrogate a leprechaun for its money. Another popular belief is that you may find a leprechaun and his pot of gold at the end of a rainbow.[citation needed]

In several Irish legends leprechauns have a power of hypnotism or trickery that confuses their target, either allowing the leprechaun to escape or just to play tricks on unsuspecting victims.[citation needed]

According to legend, if anyone keeps an eye fixed upon one, he cannot escape, but the moment the gaze is withdrawn, he vanishes.[citation needed]

Appearance

A leprechaun is shown crafting shoes in this Engraving made in 1858. In previous years leprechauns had a less homogenised appearance.

The leprechaun originally had a different appearance depending on where in Ireland he was found.[7] Prior to the 20th century, it was generally agreed that the leprechaun wore red and not green. Samuel Lover, writing in the 1831 describes the leprechaun as,

... quite a beau in his dress, notwithstanding, for he wears a red square-cut coat, richly laced with gold, and inexpressible of the same, cocked hat, shoes and buckles.[8]

According to Yeats, the solitary fairies, like the leprechaun, wear red jackets, whereas the "trooping fairies" wear green. The leprechaun's jacket has seven rows of buttons with seven buttons in each row. On the western coast, he says, the red jacket is covered by a frieze one, and in Ulster the creature wears a cocked hat, and when he is up to anything unusually mischievous, he leaps on to a wall and spins, balancing himself on the point of the hat with his heels in the air."[9]

According to McAnally, "He is about three feet high, and is dressed in a little red jacket or roundabout, with red breeches buckled at the knee, gray or black stockings, and a hat, cocked in the style of a century ago, over a little, old, withered face. Round his neck is an Elizabethan ruff, and frills of lace are at his wrists. On the wild west coast, where the Atlantic winds bring almost constant rains, he dispenses with ruff and frills and wears a frieze overcoat over his pretty red suit, so that, unless on the lookout for the cocked hat, 'ye might pass a Leprechawn on the road and never know it's himself that's in it at all.'" This dress could vary by region, however. In McAnally's account, the northern leprechaun or Logheryman wore a military "red coat and white breeches", with a "broad-brimmed, high, pointed hat", on which he would sometimes stand upside down. The Lurigadawne of Tipperary wore "an antique slashed jacket of red, with peaks all round and a jockey cap, also sporting a sword, which he uses as a magic wand." The Luricawne of Kerry was "a fat, pursy little fellow whose jolly round face rivals in redness the cut-a-way jacket he wears, that always has seven rows of seven buttons in each row". The Cluricawne of Monaghan wore "a swallow-tailed evening coat of red with green vest, white breeches, black stockings," shiny shoes, and a "long cone [hat] without a brim," sometimes used as a weapon.[10]

In a poem entitled The Lepracaun; or, Fairy Shoemaker, the 18th century Irish poet William Allingham describes the appearance of the leprechaun as:

...A wrinkled, wizen'd, and bearded Elf,
Spectacles stuck on his pointed nose,
Silver buckles to his hose,
Leather apron - shoe in his lap...[11]

Some commentators accuse Allingham of leaving the legacy of the modern image of the leprechaun.[12]

The modern image of the leprechaun is almost invariant: he is depicted as having red hair (often with a beard), wearing an emerald green frock coat.

Related creatures

A cluricaun with a jug of wine. The cluricaun is often confused with the leprechaun.

The leprechaun is related to the clurichaun and the far darrig in that he is a solitary creature. Some writers even go as far as to substitute these second two less well-known spirits for the leprechaun in stories or tales to reach a wider audience. The clurichaun is considered by some to be merely a leprechaun on a drinking spree.[13]

In politics

In the politics of the Republic of Ireland, leprechauns have been used to refer to the twee aspects of the tourist industry in Ireland[14][15]. This can be seen from this example of John A. Costello addressing the Oireachtas in 1963: "For many years, we were afflicted with the miserable trivialities of our tourist advertising. Sometimes it descended to the lowest depths, to the caubeen and the shillelagh, not to speak of the leprechaun.[16]

Popular culture

Films, television cartoons and advertising have popularised a specific dim-witted image of leprechauns which bears scant resemblance to anything found in the cycles of Irish mythology. Irish people can find the popularised image of a leprechaun to be little more than a series of offensive Irish stereotypes.[17]

The stereotypical image of a leprechaun bedecked in green is particularly strong in the United States, where it is widely used for a variety of purposes, both commercial and non-commercial.

The University of Notre Dame, home of the Fightin' Irish, has a mascot with fists raised to fight as its mascot.

The mascot of the Boston Celtics is a leprechaun depicted holding a basketball.

The popular breakfast cereal Lucky Charms uses a leprechaun mascot named "Lucky" who boasts that his cereal is "magically delicious", which for many is a topic of hot debate.

The leprechaun legend has spawned the successful Leprechaun horror film series, which began in 1993 with the Jennifer Aniston-starring Leprechaun. Five sequels have been released, all of them featuring Warwick Davis as the titular character. Another movie made about the leprechaun is Walt Disney's classic Darby O'Gill and the Little People.

See also

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Notes

  1. ^ Squire, Charles (1912). Mythology of the Celtic People. London. p. 403. ISBN 0091850436. 
  2. ^ Patrick S. Dinneen, Foclóir Gaedhilge agus Béarla (Dublin: Irish Texts Society, 1927); Oxford English Dictionary, s.v. "leprachaun", (accessed 12 May 2009, subscription needed); see also Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language, s.v. "luchorp", "luchorpán" (accessed May 12, 2009).
  3. ^ American Heritage Dictionary, s.v. "leprechaun", (accessed 12 May 2009).
  4. ^ a b Oxford English Dictionary, s.v. "leprechaun" (accessed May 12, 2009).
  5. ^ Yeats, Fairy and Folk Tales of the Irish Peasantry, 80.
  6. ^ McAnally, Irish Wonders, 140.
  7. ^ Little Guy Style
  8. ^ From Legends and Stories of Ireland
  9. ^ From Fairy and Folk Tales of the Irish Peasantry.
  10. ^ McAnally, Irish Wonders, 140–142.
  11. ^ William Allingham - The Leprechaun
  12. ^ Criticism of William Allingham's The Fairies
  13. ^ Yeats, Fairy and Folk Tales of the Irish Peasantry, 321.
  14. ^ Dáil Éireann - Volume 495 - 20 October, 1998 - Tourist Traffic Bill, 1998: Second Stage.
  15. ^ Dáil Éireann - Volume 206 - 11 December, 1963 Committee on Finance. - Vote 13—An Chomhairle Ealaoín.
  16. ^ Dáil Éireann - Volume 206 - 11 December, 1963 Committee on Finance. - Vote 13—An Chomhairle Ealaoín.
  17. ^ Negra, The Irish in Us.[page needed]

Bibliography


 
Translations: Leprechaun
Top

Dansk (Danish)
n. - nisse, dværg

Nederlands (Dutch)
kabouter (Iers), geest

Français (French)
n. - lutin (en Irlande)

Deutsch (German)
n. - Kobold

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - ξωτικό, καλικαντζαράκι της Ιρλανδίας

Italiano (Italian)
folletto

Português (Portuguese)
n. - tipo de duende

Русский (Russian)
гном

Español (Spanish)
n. - duende

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - pyssling, tomte, troll

中文(简体)(Chinese (Simplified))
妖精

中文(繁體)(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 妖精

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 레프러콘(황금을 숨긴 곳을 알려 준다는 작은 요정)

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 小妖精

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) جني, خبيث في الأساطير الإيرلنديه‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮שדון, פייה‬


 
 

 

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Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2007. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. © 2006 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. All rights reserved.  Read more
Celtic Mythology. A Dictionary of Celtic Mythology. Copyright © James MacKillop 1998, 2004. All rights reserved.  Read more
Columbia Encyclopedia. The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition Copyright © 2003, Columbia University Press. Licensed from Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. www.cc.columbia.edu/cu/cup/  Read more
Mythology Dictionary. The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Edited by E.D. Hirsch, Jr., Joseph F. Kett, and James Trefil. Copyright © 2002 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin. All rights reserved.  Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Leprechaun" Read more
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