lentil
(ˈlɛntɪl)
Forms: 4–6, 8 lentille, 5 lentylle, 6 lintell, lyntell(e, 6–8 lintel, 6–9 lentile, 7 lentill, lintile, ? lintle, 3– lentil.
[a. F. lentille:—popular L. *lentīcula (= class.L. lenticula), dim. of lent-: see lens n.
The other Rom. forms represent the class. L. word with unchanged quantity: Sp. lenteja, Pg. lentilha, It. lenticchia.]
1. a. Chiefly pl., in early use occas. collective sing. The seed of a leguminous plant (Ervum lens, Lens esculenta); also the plant itself, cultivated for food in European countries.
| c 1250 Gen. & Ex. 1488 Iacob An time him seð a mete Ðat man callen lentil ȝete. c 1425 Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 664/25 Hec lens, lentylle. 1548 Turner Names of Herbes 47 Lentilles are sowen in corne fieldes and growe as Tares do. 1577 Harrison England ii. vi. (1877) i. 153 Horssecorne, I meane, beanes, otes, tares and lintels [etc.]. 1611 Bible 2 Sam. xxiii. 11 A piece of ground full of lentiles. 1688 R. Holme Armoury iii. 331/1 The dreggs of Chaff, and the small Seeds of Tares & Lintels which are in it. 1747 tr. Astruc's Fevers 260 Spots, which are here sometimes as big as a lentille. 1795 J. Phillips Hist. Inland Navig. Add. 47 Beans, pease, vetches, lintels. 1840 Hood Up Rhine 174 Our black bread, and black puddings, and lentils! 1853 A. Soyer Pantroph. 58 His corn was exhausted, and his men were obliged to have recourse to lentils! 1877 C. Geikie Christ I. xv. 222 [In the bazaar] there were booths for Egyptian lentiles. |
† b. A name for
duckweed (
Lemna). More fully,
water lentil [
= F.
lentilles d'eau].
Obs.| 1548 Turner Names of Herbes 47 Lens palustris..is called in englishe Duckes meate or water Lentilles, in duch wasser linse. 1579 Langham Gard. Health (1633) 355 Kanker to kill, apply water Lentils with Barrows grease. 1579–80 North Plutarch (1895) IV. 69 Water lintels which the Romanes take for a token of death and mourning. 1597 Gerarde Herbal ii. ccci. (1633) 829 Ducks Meat..some term it..Lentils. |
† 2. pl. Freckles or spots on the skin. (
Cf. )
Obs.| 1558–68 Warde tr. Alexis' Secr. 30 There is neither spotte nor lyntell or any kynde of redde burgeons in the face of a man, the whiche being washed with this water..will not go out. 1578 Lyte Dodoens iii. xxxiv. 365 The iuyce of the roote [of Thapsia] with honie, taketh away all lentils and other spots of the face. 1612 Woodall Surg. Mate Wks. (1653) 80 Wheat flower..cleanseth the face from lentils and spots. 1694 Salmon Bate's Dispens. (1713) 689/1 The Face, or other Parts of the Skin troubled with Lentils. |
† 3. A lentil-shaped metal disc.
Obs. rare—1.
| 1770 Phil. Trans. LX. 365 This pendulum, which is no other than a simple steel rod fixed to a lentille, made at Para 98740 oscillations in 24 hours of mean time. |
4. A lens-shaped bulb in an apparatus for rectifying alcohol.
5. Geol. A mass of rock distinct in character and having the shape of a bi-convex lens;
spec. one regarded as a subdivision of a formation.
| 1895 J. W. Powell in A. Keith Descr. Knoxville Sheet (U.S. Geol. Survey Atlas), The kinds of rocks are indicated..by appropriate symbols... The following are generally used..Limestones..Lentils in strata. 1910 Ann. N.Y. Acad. Sci. XIX. 177 The gray sandstone of the Grès Noirs more than 20 feet thick, containing a thin irregular lentil of coal. 1953 Bull. Amer. Assoc. Petroleum Geologists XXXVII. 2410 Formations may be subdivided into members, lentils, ‘tongues’, beds, et cetera. 1970 Earth-Sci. Rev. VI. 275 Examples of informal rock units are:..(b) beds (e.g., quarry layer, coal beds, oil sands, tongues, lentils, etc.). |
6. attrib. and
Comb., as
lentil-broth,
lentil-form,
lentil-porridge,
lentil-pottage,
lentil-seed,
lentil-soup:
lentil-grey,
lentil-shaped adjs.;
† lentil-dew [a. F.
lentille d'eau]
= sense 1 b;
lentil-ore,
-powder (see
quots.);
† lentil-pulse = 1;
lentil-shell (
Zool.), the genus
Ervillia.
| 1820 W. Tooke tr. Lucian I. 553 note, The *lentil-broth was boiled and served up with fowls and vegetables in it. |
| 1800 W. Taylor in Robberds Mem. (1843) I. 345 *Lentil-dew, a name given to the duckweed..in old herbals. |
| 1900 Daily News 9 Apr. 5/6 Lady A...was dressed in *lentil-grey cloth. |
| 1896 Chester Dict. Names Min., *Lentil-ore, an early name for liroconite, because its crystals are lentil-shaped. |
| 1622 Mabbe tr. Aleman's Guzman d'Alj. ii. 275 Vpon fish-dayes we had a messe of *lentill porrige. |
| 1649 Jer. Taylor Gt. Exemp. iii. Disc. xiv. 27 He prefers a dish of red *lentill pottage before a venison. |
| 1885 Cassell's Encycl. Dict., *Lentil-powder, Pharm., a powder made of the pulverized seeds of the lentil. |
| 1660 Howell Lex. Tetragl., A *Lentil pulse, or lentle; lentille. |
| 1555 Eden Decades 102 Certayne smaule graynes of golde no bygger then *lintell seedes. 1607 Topsell Hist. Four-f. Beasts (1658) 65 Take thereof the quantity of a Lintel seed. |
| 1796 Withering Brit. Plants (ed. 3) IV. 11 Tubercles *lentil-shaped. |
| 1851 Woodward Mollusca 313 Ervilia, Turton. *Lentil-shell. |
| 1820 W. Tooke tr. Lucian I. 553 That the cook may..from inadvertence pour the fish-brine into their *lentil-soup. |