Talk:-let

-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.&mdash;msh210 &#x2120; 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. existed in Old French so even if it was borrowed from Middle French, that makes sense, but he idea that it comes from and  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)
 * is a red link because I think it's always two successive suffixings, like, from suffixed with  then with  (our entry is  but I think rond is attested in the Old French period too).