Etymologically
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lent

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /lɑ̃/[1]

Forms

lent (feminine lente, masculine plural lents, feminine plural lentes)[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French lent, inherited from Latin lentus (“supple, pliant; sticky; sluggish, slow”).[2][3][4][1] The origin of the Latin adjective is obscure: it may be an Etruscan loan, and the comparison with Old High German lindi (“soft, gentle”), itself isolated, does not establish an Indo-European source.[3] It is a doublet of lento, taken from Italian.[1]

Cognate with Old Occitan lent, Spanish lento and Italian lento.[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the Chanson de Roland (about 1100) it describes a person who acts or moves without speed, sluggish: Oliver curses li plus lenz.[2][5]

Semantic evolution

The range of the word, wider in Old French, narrowed in the 16th and 17th centuries to “slow, lacking speed”, said of beings from the first texts, then of things (about 1250), of the mind (1580), of a disease (Amyot, 1559) and of the pulse (1680).[3][2] Other senses taken from Latin in the 15th and 16th centuries were abandoned, such as “flexible, supple” (about 1500), still used as an archaism by André Chénier, and “damp, moist”.[3][6][2]

In Old French estre lent de also meant to be slow or reluctant to do something.[7][5] Derivatives include lenteur (14th century) and ralentir (1564), through alentir.[8]

Timeline

  • c. 1100 – In the Chanson de Roland.[2]
  • c. 1145 – Wace: Ne seies pas a creire lente.[2]
  • c. 1250 – Said of things.[3]
  • c. 1500 – “Flexible”.[2][6]
  • 1559 – Amyot: maladie lente.[2]
  • 1564 – Ralentir.[8]
  • 1690 – Furetière: pous lent.[2]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Slow, lacking speed in movement or action: la tortue, animal lent, lent à comprendre.[9][1]
  2. Of movements, slow and measured: à pas lents.[9]
  3. Of the mind, slow to understand: avoir l'esprit lent.[9]
  4. Taking a long time to act or to happen: un poison lent, une mort lente.[9][2]
  5. Of the pulse, beating below the normal rate.[9][10]

Word family

  • lenteur
  • ralentir

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
  3. ^ a b c d e Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  4. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 5, 252a
  5. ^ a b c Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
  6. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
  7. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
  8. ^ a b Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
  9. ^ a b c d e Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  10. ^ Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse