Pamphlet
late Middle English: from Pamphilet, the familiar name of the 12th-century Latin love poem Pamphilus, seu de Amore .
wiktionary
c. 1387, Middle English pamphilet, panflet(“small, unbound treatise”), from Anglo-Norman Pamphilet, diminutive of Old French Pamphile, used as a popular shorthand for the 12th century Latin love poem Pamphilus (seu) de amore(“Pamphilus (or) On Love”), which was so widely circulated in pamphlets as to give name to the whole phenomenon; the eponym from Ancient Greek Πάμφιλος(Pámphilos, literally “beloved by all”), deriving from παν-(pan-) + φίλος(phílos). Further borrowed as Anglo-Latin panflettus.
For the use of the diminutive of the author's name as shorthand for Latin titles in French cf. Ysopet/Esopet from Ésope, Catonet from Caton, Avionet from Avianus.
etymonline
pamphlet (n.)
"small, unbound treatise," late 14c., pamflet, "brief written text; poem, tract, small book," from Anglo-Latin panfletus, which probably is a popular short form of "Pamphilus, seu de Amore" ("Pamphilus, or about Love"), a short 12c. Latin love poem popular and widely copied in the Middle Ages; the name from Greek pamphilos "loved by all," from pan- "all" (pam- before labials; see pan-) + philos "loving, dear" see -phile).
Meaning "brief work dealing with questions of current interest; short treatise or essay, generally controversial, on some subject of temporary public interest" is from late 16c.
