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-elle

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-elle

a noun suffix occurring in loanwords from French, where it originally formed diminutives, now often with a derivative sense in which the diminutive force is lost (bagatelle; prunelle; rondelle); also in Anglicized forms of Latin words ending in -ella (organelle).

Origin:
< F < L -ella, fem. of -ellus, forming diminutives corresponding to stems ending in -ul- -ule, -r- (see castellum ), -n- (see patella )
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Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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