Forms: 4–6, 8 lentille, 5 lentylle, 6 lintell, lyntelle, 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.
The other Rom. forms represent the class. L. word with unchanged quantity: Sp. lenteja, Pg. lentilha, It. lenticchia.]
1. 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. trans. 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 the Rhine, 174. Our black bread, and black puddings, and lentils!
1853. Soyer, Pantroph., 58. His corn was exhausted, and his men were obliged to have recourse to lentils!
1877. C. Geikie, Christ, I. xv. 272. [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. LENTIGO). Obs.
1558–68. Warde, trans. 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.
In mod. Dicts.
5. attrib. and Comb., as lentil-broth, -form, -porridge, -pottage, -seed, -soup; lentil-grey, -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, trans. 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 April, 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, trans. Aleman’s Guzman d’Alf., 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, trans. Lucian, I. 553. That the cook may … from inadvertence pour the fish-brine into their *lentil-soup.
