Other forms: hamlets
A hamlet is a settlement too small even to be a village. A tiny hamlet, a hamlet of six houses, the hamlet had no shop.
In England the traditional distinction is a church: a village has one and a hamlet does not, which is a rule of thumb rather than a law. The word is a double diminutive — a little little home, from the Frankish word behind home and hamlet both.
1nounhamletA settlement too small to be a village.
“We stayed in a tiny hamlet with a few cottages and no shop.”
hamlet is a settlement.
Old French hamelet is a double diminutive of ham, a village, from a Frankish word related to home.
Old French
hamelet
Middle English
hamlet
English, today
hamlet
From Middle English hamlet, from Old French hamelet. From Middle English hamlet, hamelet, a borrowing from Old French hamelet, diminutive of Old French hamel, in turn diminutive of Old French ham, of gem origin, from Frankish haim, ultimately from Proto-Germanic haimaz (whence home). Equivalent to Middle English ham + let.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA