Lenticule

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A small lens-shaped body or component, especially a miniature optical lens used in imaging systems or display technologies
2. A tiny lens-like formation or element, whether natural or artificial, characterized by a convex shape on one or both surfaces
3. A diminutive optical piece resembling a lens in form, commonly employed in microarray technologies, diffractive optics, or biological microscopy

Etymology: "Lenticule" is a small, lens-shaped thing, and its name comes from the Latin for lentil. Latin "lenticula" was a diminutive of "lens", meaning "lentil", and the seed's flattened, biconvex shape gave the Latin word its descriptive sense. English took the word in its Latin form, and "lenticule" is an alternative spelling of the same term. The English word and "lentil" are doublets: two words from the same Latin source that reached English by different routes, one through the Old French and English path that produced "lentil" and one as a direct Latin borrowing in the learned vocabulary of science. The word lived on in scientific description, where its meaning shifted from the seed to any small, lens-like body. Naturalists and anatomists used it for objects with that same flattened, double-curved profile, so the image of a humble legume passed into technical language.

Synonyms: lentil, lens