I moved dhphoto's original post, very quickly, from another thread, since it would have 'spoiled the flow' of the other thread. I deliberately switched the words around in this thread title.
For a number of brave posters on the www, english, usa or otherwise variety, is not their first language. Some folk are not able to spell check their postings, or make grammatical errors, fall over themselves in making typos, post the same thing a number of times. are dyslexic, or otherwise their postings do not make it to perfect english as she is wrote. However, we understand what is meant. Language evolves.
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, at least one of their versions, 'lens' evolved from the Latin word for 'lentil', because it is of a similar shape. This makes absolutely no sense. The important aspect of a lens or lense, is that it lets the light through, more or less, its shape can be anything you want these days, so we want a 'these days' word.
Best wishes,
Ray