The forms _-rel_, as in _cockerel_, _pickerel_, and _-let_, as in _streamlet_, require a separate consideration. The first has nothing to do with the Italian forms _acquerella_ and _coserella_--themselves, perhaps, of Gothic, rather than of classical origin. In the Old High-German there are a multitude of diminutive forms in _-l_; as _ouga_=_an eye_, _ougili_=_a little eye_, _lied_=_a song_, _liedel_=_a little song_. "In Austria and Bavaria {285} are the forms _mannel_, _weibel_, _hundel_, &c., or _mannl_, _weibl_, _hundl_, &c. In some districts there is an _r_ before the _l_, as _madarl_=_a little maid_, _muadarl_=_a little mother_, _briadarl_=_a little brother_, &c. This is occasioned by the false analogy of the diminutives of the derived form in _r_."--Deutsche Grammatik, iii. p. 674. This indicates the nature of words like _cockerel_. Even in English the diminutive power of _-el_ can be traced in the following words:-- _Soare_=a deer in its third year. _Sor-rel_=a deer in its second year.--See _Love's Labour Lost_, with the note. _Tiercel_=a small sort of hawk, one-third less (_tierce_) than the common kind. _Kantle_=_small corner_, from _cant_=_a corner_.--_Henry IV._ _Hurdle_; in Dutch _horde_; German, _hurde_. _Hording_, without the _-l_, is used in an allied sense by builders in English. In the words in point we must assume an earlier form, _cocker_ and _piker_, to which the diminutive form _-el_ is affixed. If this be true, we have, in English, representatives of the diminutive form _-l_, so common in the High Germanic dialects. _Wolfer_=_a wolf_, _hunker_=_a haunch_, _flitcher_=_a flitch_, _teamer_=_a team_, _fresher_=_a frog_,--these are north country forms of the present English.[43] The termination _-let_, as in _streamlet_, seems to be double, and to consist of the Gothic diminutive _-l_, and the French diminutive _-t_. s. 339. _Augmentatives._--Compared with _capello_=_a hat_, the Italian word _capellone_=_a great hat_ is an augmentative. The augmentative forms, pre-eminently common in the Italian language, often carry with them a depreciating sense. The termination _-rd_ (in Old High German, _-hart_), as in _drunkard_, _braggart_, _laggard_, _stinkard_, carries with it this idea of depreciation. In _buzzard_, and _reynard_, the name of the _fox_, it is simply augmentative. In _wizard_, from _witch_, it has the power of a masculine form. The termination _-rd_, taken from the Gothic, appears in {286} the modern languages of classical origin: French, _vieillard_; Spanish, _codardo_. From these we get at, second-hand, the word _coward_.--Deutsche Grammatik, iii. 707. The word _sweetheart_ is a derived word of this sort, rather than a compound word; since in Old High German and Middle High German, we have the corresponding form _liebhart_. Now the form for _heart_ is in German not _hart_, but _herz_.