wavelet

wavelet

English

Etymology

Calque of French ondelette, from onde (“wave”) + -ette (“-let”).

Noun

wavelet (plural wavelets)

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 […]

   • 1880, Sabine Baring-Gould, Mehalah: A Story of the Salt Marshes, London: Smith, Elder & Co., 1884, Chapter 4, p. 46,

     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.

   • 1963, Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar, London: Faber & Faber, 1971, Chapter Thirteen,

     A little, rubbishy wavelet, full of candy wrappers and orange peel and seaweed, folded over my foot.

   • 1965, Muriel Spark, The Mandelbaum Gate, London: Macmillan, Chapter 3,

     They left the shop in a united wavelet of amusement […]

2. (mathematics) A fast-decaying oscillation.

Derived terms

• Gabor wavelet
• Morlet wavelet
• wavelet compression
• wavelet matrix
• wavelet modulation
• wavelet packet decomposition
• wavelet series

 

Translations

a small wave; a ripple

Bulgarian: вълничка (bg) f (vǎlnička) Chinese: Mandarin: 小浪 (xiǎolàng) Finnish: kare (fi), liplatus (fi) French: vaguelette (fr) f Hungarian: hullámocska Irish: druga m Manx: tonnane m Russian: зыбь (ru) f (zybʹ), рябь (ru) f (rjabʹ) Spanish: perturbación (es) f Ukrainian: бри́жі (uk) (brýži)

a fast-decaying oscillation

Basque: uhinxka (eu) Bulgarian: затихваща осцилация f (zatihvašta oscilacija) Finnish: aalloke French: ondelette (fr) Greek: κυματίδιο (el) n (kymatídio) Polish: falka (pl) f Russian: ве́йвлет (ru) m (véjvlet) Ukrainian: ве́йвлет (véjvlet)