2w ago

Lens Etymology

Sorry that i haven't been posting much, everyone; life hit me right after i created this community, and now i'm just keeping it alive till someone helps roll the ball with me.

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Just found this community. I would like to deeply thank you for posting, wish these posts were more popular or more easy to find.
- Thank you, that means a lot ❤️ growing this community is hard, but worth it :)

interesting! French uses the same word for both, "lentille", and German too, "Linse"
- Huh. weirdly enough, lens and linse both have unknown roots (old church slavonic too). They could be from a PIE root, or a complete coincidence.
  Who knew lentils are so weird?
  
  Slovenian also has the same word. That bein leča.
- Lente for lens and lenteja for lentil in Spanish

Related: Video is the latin verb "video". "To see".
- Including the term "audio" which means "to hear"
- "I see" actually. "To see" would be videre.
  This is one of like 20 things i remember from 4 years of latin in school.

Latin/Romance fondness of diminutives hitting again...
What happened with the French word is a dime a dozen in Romance philology. Other cases like this are:
IT orecchia, PT orelha "ear" ← Lat. auricula "little ear"; cf auris "ear"
IT ginocchio, PT joelho "knee" ← Lat. geniculum "little knee"; cf genu "knee"
PT ovelha "sheep" ← ouicula "little sheep"; cf ouis "sheep"
IT muscolo "muscle" ← musculus "little mouse/rat"; cf mus "mouse/rat"
Lat. stella "star" ← Proto-Italic stēr-la "little star"; cf Greek astḗr "star"
Lat. oculus "eye" ← PIE h₃ókʷ-e-lós "little seer", "little sighter"; cf Greek ṓps "eye"
I'm listing Italian and Portuguese examples for my own convenience, but they pop up in almost every Romance language.)
- Your comments on these posts are always great, i wish i could pin them :)
  
  Thank you!

Lithuanian uses lęšis for both.

You’re a champion. Subscribed 5eva.

14 comments