I'm sure that "lense" is simply a misspelling that has become common enough that the dictionary people now accept it as an alternative spelling. That is how languages evolve over time. People invent new words (or import them from other languages), stop using old ones, and change the spelling/meaning/pronunciation of existing ones. This phenomenon has nothing to do with America or Americans. Read some representative literary works from British authors in the early 17th, 18th, 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries and you'll see what I mean.
kansashoops wrote:
That is how languages evolve over time. People invent new words (or import them from other languages), stop using old ones, and change the spelling/meaning/pronunciation of existing ones. This phenomenon has nothing to do with America or Americans.
My point was that there is nothing uniquely American about the way we have changed the language. The British have evolved the English language all on their own in the same ways as Americans have and for the same reasons.
Main Entry: 1lens
Variant(s): also lense /'lenz/
Function: noun
Etymology: New Latin lent-, lens, from Latin, lentil; from its shape
1 a : a piece of transparent material (as glass) that has two opposite regular surfaces either both curved or one curved and the other plane and that is used either singly or combined in an optical instrument for forming an image by focusing rays of light b : a combination of two or more simple lenses c : a piece of glass or plastic used (as in safety goggles or sunglasses) to protect the eye
2 : a device for directing or focusing radiation other than light (as sound waves, radio microwaves, or electrons)
3 : something shaped like a biconvex optical lens
4 : a highly transparent biconvex lens-shaped or nearly spherical body in the eye that focuses light rays (as upon the retina) -- see EYE illustration
5 : something that facilitates and influences perception, comprehension, or evaluation
- lensed /'lenzd/ adjective
- lens·less /'lenz-l&s/ adjective
I think lense will become an accepted spelling of lens - as some have said languages develop. I just don't see lense as any kind of improvement though so I think it should be discouraged. I also see people using lense as the plural form instead of lenses which hurts the eye.
