wavelet
nounEtymology From wave + -let; a calque of French ondelette, from onde (“wave”) + -ette (diminutive suffix).
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 […]
4 more examples
- 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.1880, Sabine Baring-Gould, chapter 4, in Mehalah: A Story of the Salt Marshes, London: Smith, Elder & Co., published 1884, page 46:
- They sat on the beach and watched the hissing wavelets.1961, Norma Lorre Goodrich, “Beowulf”, in The Medieval Myths, New York: The New American Library, page 35:
- A little, rubbishy wavelet, full of candy wrappers and orange peel and seaweed, folded over my foot.1963, Sylvia Plath, chapter 13, in The Bell Jar, London: Faber & Faber, published 1971:
- They left the shop in a united wavelet of amusement […]1965, Muriel Spark, chapter 3, in The Mandelbaum Gate, London: Macmillan:
2
Mathematics, Sciences A fast-decaying oscillation.
- Derived terms
- continuous wavelet transform, Daubechies wavelet, discrete wavelet transform, Gabor wavelet, Haar wavelet, Morlet wavelet, wavelet compression, wavelet matrix, wavelet modulation, wavelet packet decomposition, wavelet series