tzaraath
English
Alternative forms
- tsara'at, zaraath
Etymology
Borrowed from Hebrew צרעת (tsará'at), originally "smitten" or "struck" from various skin afflictions' supposed divine origin.
Noun
tzaraath (uncountable)
- (Judaism) Any of various disfigurements of a person's skin, hair, clothing, or home understood as a kind of impurity requiring special rituals of atonement.
Usage notes
These illnesses and conditions have traditionally been translated as leprosy in most English translations of the Bible, although it is now widely acknowledged that the impurities described in the Bible are much broader than Hansen's disease and may not refer to it at all.
Translations
any of various disfigurements associated with certain kinds of ritual impurity in Judaism
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