† ˈland-leaper Obs.
Also 4–6 -leper(e, 5 -lepar, 7 Sc. -leiper.
[f. land n.1 + leap v. (in the sense ‘to run’) + -er1.]
= land-loper.
| [1362 Langl. P. Pl. A. v. 258 Þat Penitencia is pike he schulde polissche newe, And lepe with him ouerlond al his lyf tyme.] 1377 Ibid. B. xv. 207 He ne is nouȝte in lolleres, ne in lande-leperes [v.r. land-lepynge] hermytes. 14.. Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 565/46 Arvambulus, a londlepar. c 1460 Towneley Myst. xvi. 166 Gett I those land lepars I breke ilka bone. 1560–77 Misogonus iv. ii. 11 (Brandl) Thou landleper, thou runagat roge. 1565 J. Calfhill Answ. Treat. Crosse 51 b, Then eyther was your author a lyer, or a leude byshop: to forsake hys charge and be such a land⁓leaper. 1621 Burton Anat. Mel. i. ii. iii. xv. (1676) 83/2 Let Marriners learn Astronomy..Landleapers Geography. Ibid. ii. iii. iv. 212/2 Alexander, Cæsar, Trajan, Adrian, were as so many land-leapers, now in the East, now in the West, little at home. a 1670 Hacket Abp. Williams ii. (1692) 111 As Budæus says proverbially of a Land-leaper, that makes himself a Cripple and cries out for help, Tolle eum qui non novit. 1706 Phillips (ed. Kersey), Land-leaper's-spurge, a kind of Herb. |
Hence † landleapt a., ? vagabond, runaway; land-leaping n. (arch.), ? vagabond style of living; † a., vagabond.
| 1377 Land-lepynge [see above]. 1602 Warner Alb. Eng. x. lv. (1612) 245 With her, Mendoza, Papists here, forren, and Land-leapt Foes. 1886 M. K. Macmillan Dagonet the Jester iii. 135 In good sooth your learning and land-leaping is nought but a kind of fooling. |