'lens-like' is a compound of 'lens' and the suffix '-like'. 'lens' originates from Latin 'lens', originally meaning 'lentil' (named for the lentil-shaped form), and '-like' comes from Old English '-līc'/'-lic', meaning 'having the form or nature of'.

'lens' passed into English via medieval/early modern usage from Latin 'lens' (through Medieval Latin and Old French influence) where the word referred to the lentil-shaped piece of glass used for magnification; '-like' developed from Old English element 'līc'/'lic' and became the productive Modern English suffix '-like'. The modern compound 'lens-like' formed by combining these elements in modern English to mean 'resembling a lens'.

Initially, 'lens' referred (via Latin) to a lentil and by extension to lentil-shaped glass; over time it came to mean an optical glass element. The suffix '-like' originally meant 'having the nature of' and has retained that general meaning; combined, 'lens-like' came to mean 'resembling a lens' in shape or function.