napkinette

English

Etymology

napkin +‎ -ette

Noun

napkinette (plural napkinettes)

1. A small napkin.
   1. A small diaper. [From early 20th c.]
      • 1915, “Post Graduate Week at the General Lying-In Hospital, York Road, S.E.” in The British Journal of Nursing, Volume 54, No. 1417, 29 May, 1915, p. 473,^[1]

        Patent napkinettes have been discontinued in the hospital, as it was estimated that their cost was ₤300 yearly.

      • 1993, Carol Shields, chapter 2, in The Stone Diaries, London: Fourth Estate, published 1994, page 48:

        anyone peeking inside her small valise would have found only a folded woolen coat for herself, a dozen napkinettes in fine canton flannel for the infant, and a baby’s feeding bottle with three black rubber teats

   2. A small serviette.
      • 1978, Sophy Burnham, “On Power” in The Landed Gentry, New York: Putnam, p. 289,^[2]

        so smug and proud in their Lacoste shirts, with their gin and tonics set on little napkinettes before them