information:extraction, structural:expansion
Modern forms

The current spelling leipreachán is used throughout Ireland, but there are numerous regional variants.

John O'Donovan 's supplement to O'Reilly's Irish-English Dictionary defines lugharcán, lugracán, lupracán as "a sprite, a pigmy; a fairy of a diminutive size, who always carries a purse containing a shilling".

The Irish term leithbrágan in O'Reilly's Dictionary has also been recognized as an alternative spelling.

Other variant spellings in English have included lubrican, leprehaun, and lepreehawn. Some modern Irish books use the spelling lioprachán. The first recorded instance of the word in the English language was in 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."