a. and sb. Phonetics. Obs. [ad. L. lēnis smooth.] A designation formerly applied to a voiceless stopped consonant; by some later writers, to a stopped consonant generally.
In Worcester and later U. S. Dicts. the word is marked as disyllabic, and regarded as a. L. lēne, neut. sing. of lēnis: but there is no analogy for such a use of the neuter.
1751. Wesley, Wks. (1872), XIV. 79. The rest are mutes; of which π, κ, τ, are termed lenes. Ibid. A lene consonant, when its vowel is cut off, before an aspirate, is changed into an aspirate.
1841. Latham, Eng. Lang., ii. 107. P, b, t, d, k, g, s, z, are Lene; f, v, þ, ð, κ, γ, σ, ζ, are Aspirate. Ibid., 108. All the so-called Aspirates are Continuous: and with the exception of s and z, all the Lenes are Explosive.
1853. D. R. Goodwin, in Latham, Eng. Gram. (ed. 2), App. 239 (Worcester), By lene we mean a determinate consonant sound defined by a simple contact or particular position of the organs; and by aspirate we mean [etc.].
