Morpheme
-el
Type
suffix
Denotation
diminutive suffix
Etymology
(1) Middle English -el; Old English -el and Old French -el and (2) from -ella; Catalan -ella; both from Latin -ella, from -ellus, variants of -ulus from rebracketing of diminutives (e.g. libellus from liber + -lus, fēmella from fēmina + -la) and diminutives of diminutives (porcellus from porculus + -lus)
Evidence
bordel, caravel, chapel, chatelain, chatelaine, chatelet, chevronel, crenel, crenelation, damsel, donzel, fardel, lapel, model, modeled, modelled, orchel, panel, paneling, panelling, porcelain, radicel, roundel, tonelada, umbrel, vorticel
Notes
<l> need not double (but can), especially with inflectional suffixes, when surfacing as <-el> because of because of the British spelling convention for unstressed final syllables that end in [əl]/[l̩]
See Also
-ac(u)le [-acule, -acle], -aculum, -acula, -c(u)l(e) [-cule, -cle, -cul], -cula, -culae, -culum, -cula, -culus, -culi, -cello, -celli, -cel(l) [-cel, -cell], -cole, -ouche, -ula, -ula, -ulae, -(u)le [-ule, -le], -ulum, -ulus, -uli, -ulo, -ellus, -ellum, -ella, -ellae, -ella, -elle, -ello, -ela, -el, -euil, -eil, -eille, -eau, -ot, -olon, -olus, -olum, -(o)l(e) [-ole, -ol, -le], -ola, -olae, -olo, -oli, -unc(u)le [-uncule, -uncle], -unculus, -unculi, -uncula, -unculae, -ucc, -illus, -illi, -illa, -illae, -illum, -illa, -illo, -(i)l(l)(e) [-il, -ill, -ille, -le], -ille, -ille, -itelli
Homographs
-el-, el-, -(e)l [-el, -l], -(e)l(e) [-le, -el, -l], El(l) [Ell, El]
