wavelet

Calque of French ondelette, from onde (“wave”) + -ette (“-let”).

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wavelet (plural wavelets)

1. A small wave; a ripple.
   • 1851, “Speaker’s Meaning dimly descried” (Fragment) in Poems, London: William Pickering, p. 110,

     I know not whether

     I see your meaning: if I do, it lies

     Upon the wordy wavelets of your voice,

     Dim as an evening shadow in a brook,

     When the least moon has silver on’t no larger

     Than the pure white of Hebe’s nail.

   • 1856, Herman Melville, “The Piazza” in The Piazza Tales, New York: Dix & Edwards, pp. 6-7,

     […] long ground-swells roll the slanting grain, and little wavelets of grass ripple over upon the low piazza, as their beach, and the blown down of dandelions is wafted like the spray […]

   • 1880, Sabine Baring-Gould, chapter 4, in Mehalah: A Story of the Salt Marshes‎, London: Smith, Elder & Co., published 1884, page 46:

     The water danced and sparkled, multitudes of birds were on the wing, now dipping in the wavelets, now rising and shaking off the glittering drops.

   • 1963, Sylvia Plath, chapter 13, in The Bell Jar, London: Faber & Faber, published 1971:

     A little, rubbishy wavelet, full of candy wrappers and orange peel and seaweed, folded over my foot.

   • 1965, Muriel Spark, chapter 3, in The Mandelbaum Gate, London: Macmillan:

     They left the shop in a united wavelet of amusement […]

2. (mathematics) A fast-decaying oscillation.