lentil

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English lentil,^[2][3] also lentile,^[1] borrowed from Old French lentille (“lentil; a freckle”),^{[4][3][5][6][7]} from Vulgar Latin *lentīcula,^[3][5][6][7] a form of Latin lenticula (“a small lentil”),^[8][4] the diminutive of lēns (“lentil plant, lentil”).^[4][5][8] The Anglo-Norman word is recorded from the second half of the 12th century.^[9] The OED notes that Spanish lenteja, Portuguese lentilha and Italian lenticchia continue the Latin form with its vowel length unchanged.^[6] The Latin noun is compared with Ancient Greek λάθυρος (láthuros, “pulse, chickling”),^[8][4][10] Old High German linsa and German Linse,^[4][8] and with words for the lentil in Slavic.^[4][5] De Vaan, quoted by Etymonline, finds the likeness too great to be chance but no common form reconstructible, and suggests that, like other farming terms, the word was borrowed from a non-Indo-European language of Europe.^[4] Barnhart likewise speaks of an unknown common source,^[5] and Wiktionary of a substrate.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The seed of a leguminous plant, and the plant itself: about 1250 in Genesis and Exodus, in a manuscript of before 1325.^[6][5] Weekley notes that this first record refers to Genesis 25:29.^[11] The early use was chiefly plural, or a collective singular.^[6]

Semantic evolution

Anglo-Norman already used the word for duckweed and for spots on the skin,^[9] and English had both senses too: duckweed, also water lentil after French lentilles d'eau, from 1548 to 1597,^[6][12] and in the plural freckles or skin spots from 1558 to 1694.^[6][12] A lentil-shaped metal disc appears in 1771,^[6] and since 1895 geologists have used it for a lens-shaped mass of rock.^[6][12][10] The Latin word itself became the scientists' name for a double-convex glass in the 17th century, giving lens.^[13][4] Johnson (1755) entered the plant with a botanist's description taken from Miller.^[14] In Devon, lentil was a name for the daffodil.^[15]

Timeline

• c. 1250 – the seed of a leguminous plant, and the plant.^[6][5]
• 1548 – duckweed, also water lentil (obsolete by 1597).^[6][12]
• 1558 – in the plural, freckles or spots on the skin (obsolete by 1694).^[6][12]
• 1771 – a lentil-shaped metal disc (rare, obsolete).^[6]
• 1895 – in geology, a lens-shaped mass of rock.^[6][12]

Meanings

Noun

1. A small annual leguminous plant of the Mediterranean region and western Asia, Lens culinaris, grown for its seeds and as fodder.^[10][16][3]
2. The flat, round, edible seed of this plant, cooked in soups and stews: She stirred a handful of red lentils into the broth.^[16][3][12]
3. (geology) A thin-edged mass of rock shaped like a lens, enclosed by different material.^[10][12][6]
4. (obsolete, 1548–1597) Duckweed.^[6][12]
5. (obsolete, 1558–1694) In the plural, freckles or spots on the skin.^[6][12]

Related words

• lens
• lenticular
• lentigo
• lenticel
• lenticle

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Stratmann, Francis Henry (1891), A Middle-English Dictionary, revised by Henry Bradley, Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b c d e The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c d Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ a b Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
10. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
11. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
12. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
13. ^ Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
14. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
15. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
16. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins