Lent: [OE] The etymological meaning of Lent is ‘long days’. It comes from *langgitīnaz, a prehistoric West Germanic compound formed from *lanngaz ‘long’ and an element *tīnadenoting ‘day’. This signified originally ‘spring’, an allusion to the lengthening days at that time of year. It passed into Old English as lencten, which became Middle English lenten, but in the 13th century the -en was dropped from the noun, leaving Lenten to function as an adjective. By this time too the secular sense ‘spring’ was fast dying out, having been usurped by the application of Lent to the period between Ash Wednesday and Easter. => long
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.
双语例句
1. Somebody else lent me a pump and helped me mend the puncture.
别人借给我一个打气筒，又帮我补好了轮胎。
来自柯林斯例句
2. Enthusiastic applause lent a sense of occasion to the proceedings.
热烈的掌声给活动平添了几分隆重的色彩。
来自柯林斯例句
3. They've just lent me a laser disc player.
他们刚借了我一部激光视盘播放机。
来自柯林斯例句
4. I've lent the car to a friend.
我把车借给一位朋友了。
来自《权威词典》
5. My parents lent me the money. Otherwise, I couldn't have afforded the trip.