English
lens
Lens may come from Latin lēns ‘lentil’.
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CElēns‘lentil’uncertain
- Englishearliest quotation 2004lens
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Lineage
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CElēns‘lentil’uncertain
- Englishearliest quotation 2004lens
Earliest quotation: 2004, Ann Hulbert, Are the Kids All Right?: “If "the public looks at the condition of America's…”
The story
Borrowed from Latin lēns (‘lentil’), with Medieval Latin later taking on the sense of “lens”, a semantic loan from Arabic عَدَسَة (ʕadasa, “lentil; optic lens”); the similar shape is the common factor.
Linked words
through Latin lēns ‘lentil’
Today it means
noun An object, usually made of glass, that focuses or defocuses the light that passes through it.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Latin lēns / lens