lente

Forms

lente f (plural lenti)^[1] An old and rare variant is Old Italian lenta.^[2][3][4] Popular speech also had a plural lente.^[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin lens (“lentil”), through its accusative case.^[5][6][7][1] The first meaning in Italian was the plant and its seed; only in the 17th century was the word taken into science for the optical lens, because of the likeness in shape between the seed and the glass.^[5][6][8] Nocentini and Meyer-Lübke count it among the inherited words, kept only in Italian, Romanian linte and Friulian lint; elsewhere Romance uses the diminutive Latin lenticula, which gave lenticchia and French lentille.^[6][9][10] GDLI and Wiktionary take it as a learned borrowing from Latin instead.^[3][1] The French word took on the sense “lens” too, recorded in 1690.^[11][8]

The Latin word has no clear Indo-European relatives.^[6][12] De Vaan notes that Ancient Greek λάθυρος (láthuros, “pulse”), a Russian word and Old High German linsa (“lentil”) are too close to be chance but cannot be traced to one form, and suggests that, like other words for crops, it may come from a non-Indo-European language of Europe.^[13]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Boccaccio, in 1341–1342, for the lentil plant: among the crops in the furrows he names poppies, beans and “blind” lentils.^[5][3][2]

Semantic evolution

As the name of the plant and its seed, lente gave way to lenticchia and survives in that sense only as an old or regional word.^[3][14][15] The optical sense appears before 1642 in Galileo.^[5][11] From then on the scientific meaning took over.^[5][11] In 1681 Baldinucci used the plural lenti for spectacles with convex glasses, and in 1737 Campailla used lente for the round weight at the foot of a clock pendulum.^[5] Anatomy named the crystalline lens of the eye lente cristallina in the 19th century.^[11]

The magnifying glass was described as a lens “that enlarges objects” before 1758, and lente d'ingrandimento is recorded in 1939–1940.^[5] Lenti a contatto appears in 1970;^[5] Klajn took it to be probably a translation of English contact lenses, and Italian also has lenti corneali.^[5] Geology uses the word for a lens-shaped body of rock or a layer that thins out to nothing.^[7]

Timeline

• 1341–1342 – Boccaccio uses lente for the lentil.^[5]
• Before 1642 – Galileo uses lente for an optical lens.^[5][11]
• 1681 – Filippo Baldinucci calls convex spectacles lenti.^[5]
• 1690 – French lentille is recorded in the sense “lens”.^[11]
• 1737 – Tommaso Campailla uses lente for the bob of a pendulum clock.^[5]
• 1878 – Lenti affumicate (dark glasses) is recorded in Renato Fucini.^[5]
• 1939–1940 – Lente d'ingrandimento is recorded in Palazzi's dictionary.^[5]
• 1970 – Lenti a contatto appears in the Zingarelli dictionary.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A lens: a piece of glass, crystal or plastic bounded by two surfaces of which at least one is curved, which makes light rays converge or diverge.^{[7][16][15][1]}
2. (chiefly in the plural) Spectacles or contact lenses: ha dimenticato le lenti a casa.^[7][15]
3. A magnifying glass (lente d'ingrandimento); figuratively, guardare con la lente, to examine with extreme or pedantic care.^[7][17]
4. The round weight at the lower end of a clock pendulum.^[7][5]
5. (geology) A lens-shaped body of rock, or a layer that thins out sideways and disappears.^[7]
6. (anatomy) The crystalline lens of the eye.^[7][11]
7. (chiefly in the plural, archaic or regional) The lentil plant or its seed; also a soup pasta shaped like lentils.^[7][15][14]

Word family

• lenticolare
• lenticella

Related words

• lenticchia
• lentiggine
• Latin lens
• French lentille

Usage notes

Lente is also a form of the adjective lento “slow; slack”: its feminine plural, and in Tuscany a variant of the singular meaning “loose, not tight”.^{[18][19][14][20]} The noun is pronounced with an open e, /ˈlɛnte/.^[1][21]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
3. ^ a b c d Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 8, 946
4. ^ a b Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 585
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
6. ^ a b c d Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
8. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 8, 947
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
11. ^ a b c d e f g Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2201
12. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
13. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
14. ^ a b c Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
15. ^ a b c d Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
16. ^ Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
17. ^ Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
18. ^ Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
19. ^ Wikizionario (Italian Wiktionary), it.wiktionary.org
20. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
21. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana