lentille

Forms

lentille f (plural lentilles)^[1] Old French also lantille (about 1300).^[2] The dialect form nentille, Parisian in the 17th century, is widespread in popular speech, and Littré records it for Berry and Picardy.^[3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French lentille, inherited from Vulgar Latin *lentīcula, a variant of Latin lentĭcula (“lentil (plant and seed), freckles”), the diminutive of lēns (“lentil”).^[2][5][3][6] Wiktionary gives the Vulgar Latin form as syncopated *lenticla.^[1] Rey thinks the Latin word was probably itself borrowed, from an Indo-European or Italic word.^[5]

Cognate with Italian lenticchia, Occitan lentilha, Spanish lenteja and Portuguese lentilha.^[4][3][7]

The optical sense comes from the likeness of early lenses to the seed: Descartes in 1637 speaks of a glass shaped like a lentil.^[2][5][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first recorded about 1170 in the Livre des Rois, as a collective singular for the lentil plant and its seeds: feves, e lentilles “beans and lentils” among the provisions offered to David.^[2][5][4]

Semantic evolution

First a collective name for the plant, the word came to be used in the plural for the seeds, the singular naming a single seed.^[5] By likeness of shape it named a freckle (about 1300, lantille), a sense now dated, and in the 15th century the floating water plant lentille d'eau “duckweed”.^[2][5] English took the word from Old French in the mid-13th century as lentil.^[8]

In the 17th century it passed into optics, for a piece of glass shaped like the seed: Furetière records it in 1690, Bloch and Wartburg date it from 1686.^[2][3] Other technical uses followed, such as lentille de pendule “pendulum bob” (1743), and the contact lens, lentille cornéenne (1962).^[5][9] Rey notes that the plant and the lens are now felt as two unrelated words.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 1170 – Lentilles appears in the Livre des Rois.^[2][4]
• c. 1300 – Lantille “freckle” in the surgery of the abbé Poutrel.^[2]
• 15th century – Lentille d'eau “duckweed” in the Grant Herbier.^[2][9]
• 1637 – Descartes writes of a glass shaped like a lentil.^[2][5]
• 1690 – Furetière records the optical sense.^[2][9]
• 1743 – Lentille de pendule is recorded by the Trévoux dictionary.^[9]
• 1835 – The derivative lentillon appears.^[5]
• 1962 – Larousse records lentille cornéenne “contact lens”.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. The lentil, an annual legume with flat pods.^[10][2]
2. Its round, flat edible seed, eaten as a dried pulse: une soupe aux lentilles.^[10][4]
3. Lentille d'eau: duckweed, a small floating water plant.^[10][11]
4. (optics) A lens of glass or another transparent material with at least one curved face.^[10][1]
5. A contact lens.^[1][10]
6. (physics) A device that makes a beam of electrons or other particles converge or diverge.^[10]
7. (dated) A freckle or small brown spot on the skin.^[10][5]

Word family

• lentillon
• lentilleux

Related words

• lenticulaire
• lenticule
• lenticelle
• Latin lēns
• English lentil

Usage notes

Esau's sale of his birthright pour un plat de lentilles “for a dish of lentils” is quoted in the Old French Job and gave the phrase vendre pour un plat de lentilles, recorded by Larousse in 1873.^[4][9]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l 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 Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
4. ^ a b c d e f Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
6. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 5, 251a
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 4980
8. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
9. ^ a b c d e f Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
10. ^ a b c d e f g Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
11. ^ Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)