Cormlet

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A small, bulb-like structure that develops from a corm and can produce new plants
2. A diminutive form of a corm that serves as a reproductive structure
3. A type of plant propagation unit, formed from a corm, enabling vegetative reproduction

Etymology: A cormlet is a small corm, and the word is built in the most transparent way English allows: the noun "corm" with the diminutive suffix "-let" attached. "Corm" itself is a botanical term for the swollen, underground storage base of a plant such as a crocus or gladiolus, a solid bulb-like stem rather than a bulb made of layered leaves. The suffix "-let" comes from Anglo-Norman and Old French "-elet" and English adopted it to mark something small, as in "booklet", "piglet" and "streamlet". Because the suffix is attached to a specialised botanical noun, "cormlet" is a technical term used mainly by gardeners and botanists to describe the small corms that form around a parent corm, which are often separated and replanted to produce new plants. The formation is regular and needs little explanation: the word says exactly what it names.