romanceletn.
/rə(ʊ)ˈmanslᵻt/, U.S. /roʊˈmænslət/ A little romance (in various senses); esp. a short romantic story.
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society > leisure > the arts > literature > prose > narrative or story > other fictional narrative > [noun] > novelette or short story > short romance
romancelet1859
1859 Bentley's Q. Rev. July 230 They would generally subscribe to Gray's opinion on the romancelet.
1876 F. Harrison Ess. (1886) 219 Jane Austen would write little romancelets to her girl correspondents.
1903 Times 19 Oct. 8/3 (advt.) Mr. Le Quex's romancelets can be read with pleasure by educated people, which cannot be said for some of his rivals.
2003 Washington Post (Nexis) 9 Feb. (Mag.) w20 This wild and wanton exaggeration, my picturesque falsehood, my romancelet, ‘The Kiss’, was my first successful fiction.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, November 2010; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1859