Editing Leprechaun (section)

==Etymology==
The Anglo-Irish ([[Hiberno-English]]) word ''leprechaun'' is descended from Old Irish ''luchorpán or lupracán'',<ref>{{Cite web|title=Leprechaun: a new etymology.|url=https://bill.celt.dias.ie/vol4/displayObject.php?TreeID=11867|access-date=2021-03-04|website=bill.celt.dias.ie}}</ref> via various ([[Middle Irish]]) forms such as ''luchrapán, lupraccán'',{{sfnp|Binchy|1952|p=41n2}}<ref name="ohogain"/> (or var. ''luchrupán'').{{Refn|group="lower-alpha"|Another (intermediary) form is ''luchrupán'', listed by [[Ernst Windisch]],<ref name=windisch/> which is identified as Middle Irish by the ''[[Oxford English Dictionary|OED]]''<ref name="OEDa">Windisch cited as "Cf. Windisch  [[wikt:Glossar|Gloss.]]" in ''The Oxford English Dictionary'' s. v. "[http://dictionary.oed.com/cgi/entry/50131980 leprechaun]", 2nd ed., 1989, ''OED Online'' "[http://dictionary.oed.com/cgi/entry/50131980 leprechaun]", Oxford University Press, (subscription needed) 16 July 2009.</ref> Windisch does not comment on this being the root to English "leprechaun"}}

===Modern forms===
The current spelling {{lang|ga|leipreachán}} is used throughout Ireland, but there are numerous regional variants.{{sfnp|Ó Giolláin|1984|p=75}}

[[John O'Donovan (scholar)|John O'Donovan]]'s supplement to O'Reilly's ''Irish-English Dictionary'' defines {{lang|ga|lugharcán, lugracán, lupracán}} as "a sprite, a pigmy; a fairy of a diminutive size, who always carries a purse containing a shilling".<ref name=oreilly-lugharcan/><ref name="OEDc">O'Donovan in O'Reilly  (1817)''Irish Dict''. Suppl., cited in ''The Oxford English Dictionary''  s.v. "[http://dictionary.oed.com/cgi/entry/50131980 leprechaun]", 2nd ed, 1989, ''OED Online'', Oxford University Press, (subscription needed) 16 July 2009.</ref>{{Refn|group="lower-alpha"|[[Patrick S. Dinneen|Patrick Dinneen]] (1927) defines as "a pigmy, a sprite, or leprechaun".<ref>Patrick S. Dinneen, ''Foclóir Gaedhilge agus Béarla'' (Dublin: Irish Texts Society, 1927).</ref>}}

The Irish term ''leithbrágan'' in O'Reilly's Dictionary<ref name=oreilly-leithbragan/> has also been recognized as an alternative spelling.<ref name="OEDc"/>

Other variant spellings in English have included ''lubrican'', ''leprehaun'', and ''lepreehawn''. Some modern Irish books use the spelling ''lioprachán''.<ref name="OEDmain">"[http://dictionary.oed.com/cgi/entry/50131980 leprechaun]" ''The Oxford English Dictionary'', 2nd ed., 1989, ''OED Online'', Oxford University Press, (subscription needed) 16 July 2009</ref> The first recorded instance of the word in the English language was in [[Thomas Dekker (poet)|Dekker]]'s comedy ''[[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."<ref name="OEDmain"/>

===Meanings===
The word may have been [[Protologism|coined]] as a compound of the roots ''lú'' or ''laghu'' (from {{langx|el|[[wikt:ἐλαχύ|ἐ-λαχύ]]}} "small") and ''corp'' (from {{langx|la|corpus}} "body"), or so it had been suggested by [[Whitley Stokes (Celtic scholar)|Whitley Stokes]].<ref name=stokes/>{{Refn|group="lower-alpha"|The root ''corp'', which was borrowed from the [[Latin]] ''corpus'', attests to the early influence of [[Ecclesiastical Latin]] on the Irish language.<ref>"[http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/leprechaun leprechaun]" ''The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language'', 4th ed., 2004, ''Dictionary.com'', Houghton Mifflin Company, 16 July 2009.</ref>}}  Research published in 2019 suggests the word derives from the ''Luperci'' and associated Roman festival of [[Lupercalia]].<ref>[https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-49579940 Leprechaun 'is not a native Irish word' new dictionary reveals], BBC, 5 September 2019.</ref><ref>[https://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/lost-irish-words-rediscovered-including-the-word-for-oozes-pus Lost Irish words rediscovered, including the word for ‘oozes pus'], Queen's University Belfast research for the [http://www.dil.ie Dictionary of the Irish Language] reported by Cambridge University.</ref><ref>[http://www.dil.ie/30904 lupracán, luchorpán] on the Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language (accessed 6 September 2019)</ref>

[[Folk etymology]] derives the word from ''leith'' (half) and ''bróg'' (brogue), because of the frequent portrayal of the leprechaun as working on a single shoe, as evident in the alternative spelling ''leithbrágan''.<ref name=oreilly-leithbragan/><ref name="OEDc"/>{{efn|Cf. {{harvp|Yeats|1888}}, {{URL|1=https://books.google.co.jp/books?id=XsIqAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA80|2=p. 80}}.}}