The name makes sense if you're aware of the etymology of the word "lentil" [1]: From Middle English lentile, from Old French lentille from Latin lenticula, dim

The name makes sense if you're aware of the etymology of the word "lentil" [1]: From Middle English lentile, from Old French lentille from Latin lenticula, diminutive of lēns, from a Proto-Indo-European root shared by German Linse and Ancient Greek λάθυρος (láthuros). Doublet of lenticula. In Swedish, for example, the word for the food ("lins") is exactly the same as the word for the optical component. I just thought that was interesting, since naming is hard and perhaps the connection was not obvious to everybody. [1] https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/lentil https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/lentil