-ette

American  

1. a noun suffix occurring originally in loanwords from French, where it has been used in a variety of 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 ).

---

-ette British  

suffix

1. small

   cigarette

   kitchenette

2. female

   majorette

   suffragette

3. (esp in trade names) imitation

   Leatherette

---

Gender

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.

Etymology

Origin of -ette

From French, feminine of -et noun suffix; -et

Example Sentences

Second, the idea of replacing miscellaneous accrued bachelor/ette stuff with expensive coordinated marital stuff barely got a foothold before it dawned that 1.

From Washington Post

The second will follow in early 2022 and focus on the others artists represented in the collection, like Willia Ette Graham and Arbie Williams.

From New York Times

I didn’t like it because I don’t like names with “ette” – you know, it looks like a little girl’s name.

From The Guardian

Ms. Prudhomme twirls, cartwheels, stomps and headbangs, as does Jeanne Voisin later on as the teenage Jeanne, who’s dropped the “ette” from her name.

From New York Times

The intention of the "ette" suffix was "to belittle and to show that they were less than the proper kind of suffrage worker", says Elizabeth Crawford, a researcher and author on the women's suffrage movement.

From BBC