-let

From Middle English [Term?], from Middle French -el, from Latin -ellus + Middle French -et, from Latin -ittus, both diminutive suffixes. Replaced Middle English -el, from Old English -el, -il.

-let

1. a diminutive suffix; for example:

• booklet, a small book
• applet, a small computer application
• owlet, a small (young) owl
• piglet, a small (young) pig
• manlet, a short man

1. piece; as in a suit of armor for example:

• bracelet, the "arm piece" or "arm protector"
• gantlet, the "glove piece" or "glove protector"
• epaulet, the "shoulder piece" or "shoulder protector"
• where the noun let lends the sense of a hindrance, deflector, protective piece, and hence protector

Alongside -ie/-y and -ette, -let is one of the three most productive diminutive affixes in modern English. It is used almost exclusively with concrete nouns and (unusually for a diminutive) never with names. When used with objects, it generally denotes diminution only in size; when used with animals, it generally denotes young animals; when used with adult persons, it is generally depreciative, connoting pettiness and conveying contempt. When used to describe parts in a suit of armor and some other contexts it denotes a piece or component of the larger whole.

• Schneider, Klaus P. Diminutives in English, p. 96 et seq. 2003.
• http://www.dsl.ac.uk/entry/snd/let_n1
• http://www.dsl.ac.uk/entry/dost/let_n

• ELT, ETL, LTE, TEL, TLE, Tel., elt, tel

-l +‎ -et, created during the Hungarian language reform which took place in the 18th–19th centuries. The neologists popularized it based on verbs ending in -l and further derived with -at/-et. [1]

-let

1. (noun-forming suffix) Added to different parts of speech to form a noun.

   rész (“part”) → részlet (“detail”)

   keres (“to search”) → kereslet (“demand (in economics)”)

   egy (“one”) → egylet (“society, association, club”)

• (noun-forming suffix) Harmonic variants:

  -lat is added to a back vowel word

  -let is added to a front vowel word

• Appendix:Hungarian suffixes