-ette

a noun suffix occurring originally in loanwords from French, where it has been used in a variety of diminutive and hypocoristic formations ( brunette; cigarette; coquette; etiquette; rosette ); as an English suffix, -ette, forms diminutives ( kitchenette; novelette; sermonette ), distinctively feminine nouns ( majorette; usherette ), and names of imitation products ( leatherette ).

Compare -et.

Origin:
< French, feminine of -et -et

Usage note
English nouns in which the suffix -ette designates a feminine role or identity have been perceived by many people as implying inferiority or insignificance: bachelorette; drum majorette; farmerette; suffragette; usherette. Of these terms, only drum majorette—or sometimes just majorette—is still widely used, usually applied to one of a group of young women who perform baton twirling with a marching band. A woman or man who actually leads a band is a drum major. Baton twirler is often used instead of (drum) majorette. Farmer, suffragist, and usher are applied to both men and women, thus avoiding any trivializing effect of the -ette ending. See also -enne, -ess, -trix.

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Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2013.
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Link To -ette

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-ette is always a great word to know.

So is doohickey. Does it mean:

a gadget; dingus; thingumbob.

a screen or mat covered with a dark material for shielding a camera lens from excess light or glare.

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Collins

World English Dictionary

-ette

—*suffix forming nouns*
1.	small: cigarette; kitchenette
2.	female: majorette; suffragette
3.	(esp in trade names) imitation: Leatherette

[from French, feminine of -et]

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Etymonline

Word Origin & History

-ette

dim. formation, from O.Fr. -ette (fem.), used indiscriminately in O.Fr. with masc. form -et. As a general rule, older words borrowed from Fr. have -et in Eng., while ones taken in since 17c. have -ette. In use with native words since 20c., especially among persons who coin new product names, who tend

to give it a sense of "imitation." Also in words like sermonette, which, OED remarks, "can scarcely be said to be in good use, though often met with in newspapers."

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