lent
/lɛnt/ noun, proper noun
Also a form of lend
Forms lents
- noun (Christianity) A period of the ecclesiastical year preceding Easter, traditionally involving temporary abstention from certain foods and pleasures. “Hezekiah gave up vaping for Lent.”
- noun (Eastern Christianity) The 40 days preceding Lazarus Saturday, the Saturday preceding Holy Week.
- noun (Roman Catholicism) The 46 days preceding Easter, reckoned as 40 days by excluding Sundays.
- noun (Buddhism, Myanmar) vassa, period of the Buddhist lent during the rainy season
- proper noun A surname.
Synonyms
Lententide Lent season Lenten season season of Lent Quadragesima Great Lent Lent term
Etymology
Shortened form of Lenten, from Old English lencten, from Proto-West Germanic *langatīn (“spring”), as in a season into which days lengthen as it progresses.
Cognate with Alemannic German langsé, Langssi (“spring”), Bavarian longas, lòngas, longast (“spring”), Cimbrian langaz, langhes, långez (“spring”), lentz (“March”), Dutch lente (“spring”), German Lenz, Lenze (“spring”), Mòcheno langes (“spring”).
* Reduced form of Dutch van Lent, a habitational surname for someone from Lent, in Gelderland.
* Perhaps an Americanized spelling of German Lenth, from a personal name related to the noun Land.
Webster’s 1913
- noun A fast of forty days, beginning with Ash Wednesday and continuing till Easter, observed by some Christian churches as commemorative of the fast of our Savior.
- adjective Slow; mild; gentle; as, lenter heats. [Obs.] B.Jonson.
- adjective See Lento.
Etymology [OE. lente, lenten, leynte, AS. lengten, lencten, spring, lent, akin to D. lente, OHG. lenzin, langiz, G. lenz, and perh. fr. AS. lang long, E. long, because at this season of the year the days lengthen.]
Etymology [L. lentus; akin to lenis soft, mild: cf. F. lent. See Lenient.]
Sources: Wiktionary · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “lent”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details