[Irish Gaelic leipreachán, from Middle Irish lupracá;n, luchrupán, luchorpán : probably alteration (influenced by lú-, small; see leg^wh- in the Appendix of Indo-European roots, and corp, body, from Latin corpus; see k^wrep- in the Appendix of Indo-European roots) of Latin lupercus, member of the luperci, a group of Roman priests who during the Lupercalia ran up the Palatine from the Lupercal, the cave where a wolf suckled Romulus and Remus (probably from lupus, wolf; see wk^wo- in the Appendix of Indo-European roots) + Irish -án, diminutive suffix. For the semantic development from luperci to leprechaun, it appears that the accounts of the luperci in classical texts were misunderstood by early Irish scholars, who believed the luperci to be a race of wolfmen and interpreted their run up the hill to be an escape from the Biblical flood by taking refuge in Ireland. This conception of a race of nonhuman beings inhabiting Ireland evolved into the folklore of the leprechaun..]