zeiss lens terminology help?

Hi, I'm just getting into medium format, using a friend's hasselblad 503cxi. I've been looking around at lenses and was wondering if someone could explain to me the meanings of distagon, heliar, planar, sonnar etc. I've looked around online and haven't been able to find anything. Do they actually mean something, or are they just names? Thanks alot,

Scott

I think the terminology used by Zeiss is based on optical design!

SONNAR lenses are triple group design, the front group has a single element, the second has two, divided by one "fill in" between them, and the rear one has a double or triple component.
Other companies using the same design refer to it as "Sonnar type".

However, it`s seems they can call HOLOGON to any deep-set super-wide optic, BIOGON to any deep-set wide-angle, DISTAGON for those that aren`t deep-set, PLANAR to high-speed normal or semi-wide lenses of symmetrical optical design,TESSAR to medium-speed ones and SONNAR to longer focal lenght lenses.

http://www.zeiss.de/C12567A8003B58B9/allBySubject/0944A93A7129E9DF41256A53003735CE


Cheers

André

Andre,
Thanks so much for the explanation and the link.

Scott