英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

lender (n.)[lender 词源字典]: Old English laenere, agent noun from lænan (see lend (v.)).[lender etymology, lender origin, 英语词源]
length (n.): Old English lengðu "length," from Proto-Germanic *langitho, noun of quality from *langgaz (root of Old English lang; see long (adj.)) + *-itho, abstract noun suffix (see -th (2)).

Cognate with Old Norse lengd, Old Frisian lengethe, Dutch lengte. Figurative sense of "the distance one goes, extremity to which something is carried" is from 1690s. Phrase at length "to full extent" is attested from c. 1500.
lengthen (v.): late 14c., from length + -en (1). Related: Lengthened; lengthening. Earlier verb was simply length (c. 1300).
lengthways: 1590s, from length + way (n.), with adverbial genitive -s.
lengthwise (adv.): 1570s, from length + wise (n.). As an adjective by 1871.
lengthy (adj.): 1759, American English, from length + -y (2). Until c. 1840 always characterized in British English as an Americanism.
This word has been very common among us, both in writing and in the language of conversation; but it has been so much ridiculed by Americans as well as Englishmen, that in writing it is now generally avoided. Mr. Webster has admitted it into his dictionary; but as need hardly be remarked it is not in any of the English ones. It is applied by us, as Mr. Webster justly observes, chiefly to writings or discourses. Thus we say, a lengthy pamphlet, a lengthy sermon, &c. The English would say, a long or (in the more familiar style) a longish sermon. [John Pickering, "A Vocabulary, or Collection of Words and Phrases Which Have Been Supposed to be Peculiar to the United States of America," Boston, 1816]
Related: Lengthily; lengthiness.
lenience (n.): 1796, from lenient + -ence.
leniency (n.): 1780, from lenient + -cy.
lenient (adj.): 1650s, "relaxing, soothing," from Middle French lenient, from Latin lenientem (nominative leniens), present participle of lenire "to soften, alleviate, mitigate, allay, calm," from lenis "mild, gentle, calm," probably from PIE root *le- "to leave, yield, let go, slacken" (cognates: Lithuanian lenas "quiet, tranquil, tame, slow," Old Church Slavonic lena "lazy," Latin lassus "faint, weary," Old English læt "sluggish, slow," lætan "to leave behind"). Sense of "mild, merciful" (of persons) first recorded 1787. In earlier use was lenitive, attested from early 15c. of medicines, 1610s of persons.
Lenin: pseudonym or alias chosen c. 1902 (for publishing clandestine political works in exile) by Russian revolutionary Vladimir Il'ich Ulyanov (1870-1924). Related: Leninist (1917); Leninism (1918).
lenitive (adj.): early 15c., from Medieval Latin lenitivus, from Latin lenitus, past participle of lenire "to soften" (see lenient). As a noun, from early 15c.
lenity (n.): "softness," early 15c., from Middle French lénité or directly from Latin lenitatem (nominative lenitas), from lenis "soft, mild" (see lenient).
lens (n.): 1690s, "glass to regulate light rays," from Latin lens (genitive lentis) "lentil," on analogy of the double-convex shape. See lentil. Of the eye from 1719.
In the vernacular of the photographer, anyone crowding to the front of a group, staring into the lens, or otherwise attracting attention to himself is known as a "lens louse." ["American Photography," vol. 40, 1946; the term dates from 1915]
Lent (n.): late 14c., short for Lenten (n.) "forty days before Easter" (early 12c.), from Old English lencten "springtime, spring," the season, also "the fast of Lent," from West Germanic *langa-tinaz "long-days" (cognate with Old Saxon lentin, Middle Dutch lenten, Old High German lengizin manoth), from *lanngaz (root of Old English lang "long;" see long (adj.)) + *tina-, a root meaning "day" (compare Gothic sin-teins "daily"), cognate with Old Church Slavonic dini, Lithuanian diena, Latin dies "day" (see diurnal).

the compound probably refers to the increasing daylight. Compare similar form evolution in Dutch lente (Middle Dutch lentin), German Lenz (Old High German lengizin) "spring." Church sense of "period between Ash Wednesday and Easter" is peculiar to English.
Lenten (adj.): late Old English, from Lent + -en (2). Elizabethan English had Lenten-faced "lean and dismal" (c. 1600).
lenticular (adj.): early 15c., from Late Latin lenticularis, from lenticula "a small lentil," diminutive of lens "lentil" (see lentil). Related: Lenticularity.
lentil (n.): mid-13c., from Old French lentille "lentil," also "freckle," from Latin lenticula, diminutive of Latin lens (genitive lentis) "lentil," cognate with Greek lathyros, German linse, Old Church Slavonic lęšta.
lento: "slowly" (musical direction), 1724, from Italian lento "slow," from Latin lentus "flexible, pliant, slow, sluggish" (see lithe). Related: Lentissimo.
Leo: zodiac constellation, late Old English, from Latin leo "lion" (see lion). Meaning "person born under the sign of Leo" is from 1894. Leonid "meteor which appears to radiate from Leo" is from 1868. The annual shower peaks Nov. 14.
Leon: medieval kingdom in northwestern Spain, said to be from Latin legionis (septimae) "of the Seventh Legion," which was founded in Spain in 65 B.C.E.; the name probably then conformed to Spanish leon "lion." Related: Leonese.