lens

English Online Dictionary. What means lens‎? What does lens mean?

English

Alternative forms

• (misspelling) lense

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin lēns (“lentil”), with Medieval Latin later taking on the sense of “lens”, a semantic loan from Arabic عَدْسَة (ʕadsa, “lentil; optic lens”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /lɛnz/
• Rhymes: -ɛnz

Noun

lens (plural lenses or (obsolete) lens or (rare) lentes)

2. (optics) An object, usually made of glass, that focuses or defocuses the light that passes through it.
3. A device which focuses or defocuses electron beams.
4. (geometry) A convex shape bounded by two circular arcs, joined at their endpoints, the corresponding concave shape being a lune.
5. (biology) A genus of the legume family; its bean.
7. (anatomy) The transparent crystalline structure in the eye.
8. (earth science) A body of rock, ice, or water shaped like a convex lens.
9. (programming) A construct used in statically-typed functional programming languages to access nested data structures.
10. (by extension, figuratively) A way of looking, literally or figuratively, at something.

Derived terms

Descendants

• → Bengali: লেন্স (lenś)
• → Turkish: lens

Translations

Verb

lens (third-person singular simple present lenses, present participle lensing, simple past and past participle lensed)

1. (transitive, cinematography) To film, shoot.
2. (geology) To become thinner towards the edges.

Translations

Anagrams

• NLEs

Afrikaans

Etymology

From Dutch lens, from Latin lēns (“lentil”).

Pronunciation

Noun

lens (plural lense)

1. lens

Danish

Noun

lens n

1. genitive singular indefinite of len
2. genitive plural indefinite of len

Dutch

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /lɛns/
• Hyphenation: lens
• Rhymes: -ɛns

Etymology 1

Borrowed from Latin lēns (“lentil”).

Noun

lens f (plural lenzen, diminutive lensje n)

1. (optics) optical lens
2. crystalline lens in the eye

Derived terms

Descendants

• Afrikaans: lens
• → Indonesian: lensa
• → Japanese: レンズ (renzu)
• → Papiamentu: lèns

Etymology 2

Probably related to lans (“lance”).

Noun

lens m (plural lenzen, diminutive lensje n)

1. (historical) a type of barbless harpoon used for killing whales

Etymology 3

From Middle Dutch lense, of uncertain origin. Perhaps a variant of Middle Dutch lunse (see luns), or perhaps a dialectal borrowing from Old Frisian *lens, *lenis, from Proto-West Germanic *lunis, related to Old English lynis (“linchpin”).

Noun

lens f (plural lenzen, diminutive lensje n)

1. Alternative form of luns

Etymology 4

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Adjective

lens (comparative lenzer, superlative meest lens or lenst)

1. empty
2. weak, flaccid

Declension

Derived terms

Descendants

• Petjo: lens

Anagrams

• snel

Ingrian

Etymology

Cognate with Votic lensi.

Pronunciation

• (Ala-Laukaa) IPA^(key): /ˈlens/, [ˈlʲe̞nz̠]
• (Soikkola) IPA^(key): /ˈlens/, [ˈle̞nʒ̥]
• Rhymes: -ens
• Hyphenation: lens

Noun

lens

1. glow, gleam

Declension

Synonyms

• äky

Latin

Etymology 1

Unknown, likely a borrowing from an unidentified source.

Compare Old High German linsa (“lentil”), Lithuanian lęšis (“lentil”), Proto-Slavic *lęťa (“lentil”), and Albanian lend (“acorn”), sounding too similar for a coincidence, however different enough to prohibit reconstruction of a common PIE protoform. May also be related to Ancient Greek λάθυρος (láthuros).

If ultimately a non-IE substrate loanword, locating the source is virtually impossible because cultivation of lentil was widespread in the region since the Neolithic.

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /lens/, [ɫ̪ẽːs̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /lens/, [lɛns]

Noun

lēns f (genitive lentis); third declension

1. lentil
2. (Medieval Latin) lens

Declension

Third-declension noun (i-stem, accusative singular in -em or -im, ablative singular in -e or -ī).

Derived terms

Descendants

Etymology 2

Unknown. According to de Vaan, perhaps a deformed form of what is found as Proto-Slavic *gňìda (“nit”), Proto-Germanic *hnits (“nit”), Ancient Greek κονίς (konís) (gen. κονίδος (konídos)), Armenian անիծ (anic, “nit”); he proposes Proto-Indo-European *dḱ(o)nid- > *dkni-n-d- > *dklind- > Proto-Italic *(d)lind-. However, like the Indo-European cognates, it may be of substrate origin.

Noun

lēns f (genitive lendis); third declension

1. nit (egg of a louse)

Declension

Third-declension noun.

Descendants

• Gallo-Romance:
  • Franco-Provençal: len
  • Old French: lent
    • Picard: len
    • Walloon: lin
• Late Latin: lendis (see there for further descendants)

References

• De Vaan, Michiel (2008) “lēns, -tis”, in Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 7), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 334
• Ernout, Alfred, Meillet, Antoine (1985) “lens”, in Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue latine: histoire des mots‎^[3] (in French), 4th edition, with additions and corrections of Jacques André, Paris: Klincksieck, published 2001, page 351
• Walther von Wartburg (1928–2002) “lens, -dis”, in Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, volume 5: J L, page 250

Further reading

• “lens”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “lens”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• lens in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.

Turkish

Etymology

From English lens; ultimately from Latin lēns.

Noun

lens (definite accusative lensi, plural lensler)

1. contact lens

Declension

Synonyms

• kontakt/kontak lens