Dragonlet

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A small dragon or dragon-like creature, often depicted in fantasy literature and art as a diminutive version of a larger serpentine being
2. A tiny, often whimsical, creature resembling a dragon, typically featured in tales of fantasy as a smaller variant of its larger counterparts
3. This refers to a miniature dragon, commonly represented in myth and folklore, that embodies the characteristics of larger draconic beings

Etymology: "Dragonlet" is built from "dragon" and the diminutive suffix "-let", which English uses to mark something small, as in "booklet" or "piglet". The suffix came into English from Old French, where "-elet" and "-et" formed diminutives, and it attached readily to nouns in the same way, so "dragonlet" follows an ordinary pattern: a little dragon. The word is a doublet of "drakelet", a pairing in which one form descends from the same source as the other but reached English through a different path. "Drake" in the older word is a variant of "dragon" that came through a separate route, so the two forms share a root but reached English in different shapes. The meaning of "dragonlet" has stayed close to its parts, referring to a small dragon, and it is used most often in fantasy writing.

Synonyms: small dragon