Talk:-let

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-let

rfv-sense: the young of an animal, e.g., piglet. I can't at the moment think of any other examples in this sense. I thought this is just a variant of the diminutive suffix -et, which sense I have added, as well as an inflection line. I can't characterize the occasions for its use off the top of my head. DCDuring 22:59, 16 January 2008 (UTC)

Just a regular diminutive ending...e.g., booklet, ringlet, bracelet, leaflet, hamlet, circlet, roundlet, annulet, armlet, chaplet, tablet, caplet, goblet, applet. —Stephen 06:36, 17 January 2008 (UTC)

Just to nitpick: not caplet, which is a portmanteau rather than cap (or capsule) plus diminutive suffix. Q.v.—msh210℠ 16:17, 17 January 2008 (UTC)

A friend from Shoreham-in-Kent referred to his diminutive wife as wifelet with no one missing his meaning, so it's still a morphologically productive suffix. DCDuring 19:03, 17 January 2008 (UTC)

From Middle French -el and -et but not from -elet

The etymology seems implausible to me. -elet existed in Old French so even if it was borrowed from Middle French, that makes sense, but he idea that it comes from -el and -et separately and not from -elet seems implausible at best to me. Best guess, that is what the etymology is trying to sat just it's poorly written. Renard Migrant (talk) 17:26, 19 September 2014 (UTC)

-elet is a red link because I think it's always two successive suffixings, like rondelet, from rond suffixed with -el then with -et (our entry is reont but I think rond is attested in the Old French period too).