herblet

English

Etymology

From herb +‎ -let.

Noun

herblet (plural herblets)

1. A small herb.
   • 1611 April (first recorded performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Cymbeline”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene ii]:

     The herbs that have on them cold dew o’ the night
     Are strewings fitt’st for graves. Upon their faces.
     You were as flowers, now wither’d: even so
     These herblets shall, which we upon you strew.

   • 1822, Henry Francis Cary (translator), Ode, Book 4, No. 18, by Pierre de Ronsard, The London Magazine, Volume 5, June 1822, p. 510,^[1]

     God shield ye, bright embroider’d train

     Of butterflies, that, on the plain,

     Of each sweet herblet sip;

   • 1907, Hans Christian Andersen, “Tommelise”, in Caroline Peachey, transl., Danish Fairy Legends and Tales‎^[2], London: George Bell & Sons, pages 194–195:

     […] she dined off the honey from the flowers, and drank from the dew that every morning spangled the leaves and herblets around her.

References

• “herblet”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

Anagrams

• Helbert, blether