lens

English

English Wikipedia has an article on:

lens

Wikipedia

Alternative forms

• (misspelling) lense

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /lɛnz/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛnz

Noun

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

1. An object, usually made of glass, that focuses or defocuses the light that passes through it.
   • 2013 July-August, Catherine Clabby, “Focus on Everything”, in American Scientist:

     Not long ago, it was difficult to produce photographs of tiny creatures with every part in focus. That’s because the lenses that are excellent at magnifying tiny subjects produce a narrow depth of field.

2. A device which focuses or defocuses electron beams.
3. (geometry) A convex shape bounded by two circular arcs, joined at their endpoints, the corresponding concave shape being a lune.
4. (biology) A genus of the legume family; its bean.
5. (anatomy) The transparent crystalline structure in the eye.
   • 2013 July-August, Fenella Saunders, “Tiny Lenses See the Big Picture”, in American Scientist:

     The single-imaging optic of the mammalian eye offers some distinct visual advantages. Such lenses can take in photons from a wide range of angles, increasing light sensitivity. They also have high spatial resolution, resolving incoming images in minute detail.

6. (earth science) A body of rock, ice, or water shaped like a convex lens.
7. (programming) A construct used in statically-typed functional programming languages to access nested data structures.
8. (by extension, figuratively) A way of looking, literally or figuratively, at something.
   • 2004 April 11, Ann Hulbert, “Are the Kids All Right?”, in The New York Times Magazine, page 11:

     If "the public looks at the condition of America's children largely through a negative lens," worries Child Trends […] , "it may be more difficult to […] promote child well-being."

   • 2023 April 26, Benjamin Lee, quoting Steven Spielberg, “Steven Spielberg: ‘No film should be revised’ based on modern sensitivity”, in The Guardian‎, →ISSN:

     No film should be revised based on the lenses we now are, either voluntarily, or being forced to peer through.

Derived terms

Descendants

• → Bengali: লেন্স (lenśo)
• → 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.
   • 2020 May 7, Katie Rife, “If you’re looking to jump in your seat, make a playdate with Z”, in The Onion AV Club‎:

     It’s set in an anonymous, upper-middle-class suburb, lensed in the generic gunmetal gray that will one day appear as dated as the fuzzy outlines of ’80s direct-to-video horror movies.

2. (geology) To become thinner towards the edges.

Translations

Afrikaans

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

lens (plural lense)

1. lens

Danish

Noun

lens n

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

Dutch

Dutch Wikipedia has an article on:

lens (optiek)

Wikipedia ^nl

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

• contactlens
• lensafsluiter m
• lensdop
• ooglens
• telelens f

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

Adjective

lens (comparative lenzer, superlative meest lens or lenst)

1. empty
2. weak, flaccid

Inflection

Derived terms

Descendants

• Petjo: lens

Anagrams

• snel

Latin

Etymology 1

Unknown, likely a borrowing from an unidentified source.

Compare Old High German linsa, Lithuanian lęšis, Old Church Slavonic лѧща (lęšta), and Albanian lend (Proto-Albanian *lenta), 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) IPA^(key): /lens/,
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /lens/,

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 (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 (in German), 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