小

小 U+5C0F, 小 CJK UNIFIED IDEOGRAPH-5C0F ← 導 CJK Unified Ideographs 尐 →

Stroke order

Stroke order

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Radical 42 小

小 (Kangxi radical 42, 小+0, 3 strokes, cangjie input 弓金 (NC), four-corner 9000₀, composition ⿻亅八)

1. Kangxi radical #42, ⼩.
2. Shuowen Jiezi radical №15

• Appendix:Chinese radical/小
• 𠃝, 仦, 𫭚, 孙, 𢖹, 㭂, 毜, 𥾗, 䚱, 𨈓, 釥, 𢮬, 𬂸, 𩵖, 𪨤, 𢑐, 𢖿, 𣁂, 𥃻, 㕾, 𣅱, 𧈨, 覍, 𧴪, 雀, 𣫶, 𩾟
• 示, 厼, 夵, 糸, 䒕, 𣌢, 京, 亰, 県, 𡱵, 𦯝, 𭐗, 𠩤, 齋(斎), 𨳒(𮤭), 𡆧, 𡶿, 𧵁, 𤸨

• Kangxi Dictionary: page 296, character 18
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 7473
• Dae Jaweon: page 587, character 8
• Hanyu Da Zidian (first edition): volume 1, page 560, character 12
• Unihan data for U+5C0F

Historical forms of the character 小
Shang	Western Zhou	Warring States	Shuowen Jiezi (compiled in Han)	Liushutong (compiled in Ming)
Oracle bone script	Bronze inscriptions	Qin slip script	Small seal script	Transcribed ancient scripts

Two possible interpretations:

• Ideogram (指事) – three small dots > small.
• Pictogram (象形) – three granules of sand – original character of 沙 (OC *sraːl, *sraːls) > small.

Starting from some bronze inscriptions, the dots have become elongated. Based on this form, Shuowen erroneously considers it to be an ideogrammic compound (會意 / 会意) : 八 (“to divide; to separate”) + 丨 (“small object”).

Compare with 少 (OC *hmjewʔ, *hmjews), represented by four dots in its oracle bone script form. Unrelated to the bottom part of 京, 示, 尞, 尗, and 原.

Often thought to be related to 少 (OC *hmjewʔ, *hmjews) (e.g. Wang, 1982), but Schuessler (2007) points out that the alternation between Middle Chinese /s-/ and /ɕ-/ within a word family is exceptional.

小

1. small, tiny, little

   小孩  ―  xiǎohái  ―  child

   Antonym: 大

2. minor, petty
3. briefly, for a short while

   小憩  ―  xiǎoqì  ―  brief rest

4. slightly, a little
5. young

   小狗  ―  xiǎogǒu  ―  puppy

   小貓／小猫  ―  xiǎomāo  ―  kitten

   小羊  ―  xiǎoyáng  ―  lamb

   這嬰兒太小了，不能自己吃東西。 [MSC, trad.]
   这婴儿太小了，不能自己吃东西。 [MSC, simp.]

   Zhè yīng'ér tài xiǎo le, bù néng zìjǐ chī dōngxī.

   The baby is too young to feed itself.

   Antonym: 老 (lǎo)

6. (the) youngest

   小兒子／小儿子  ―  xiǎo'érzǐ  ―  youngest son

7. a young person; child, kid, baby

   一家老小  ―  yījiālǎoxiǎo  ―  the entire family, old and young

8. Prefix used in front of family name to indicate informality or affection (for young people, 老 (lǎo) for elder people).

   For example, Someone called 李國寶／李国宝 can be called 小李.

9. (humble) my, our

   小弟  ―  xiǎodì  ―  I

   小女  ―  xiǎonǚ  ―  my daughter

   小的  ―  xiǎode  ―  I

   小姓陳，請多關照。 [MSC, trad.]
   小姓陈，请多关照。 [MSC, simp.]

   Xiǎo xìng Chén, qǐng duō guānzhào.

   My surname is Chen, nice to meet you.

10. Short for 小學／小学 (xiǎoxué, “primary school”).
    1. Used in the abbreviation of the name of a primary school.

       二小  ―  Èr Xiǎo  ―  No. 2 Primary School

    2. Used with a number to indicate the level of primary education.

       小一  ―  xiǎoyī  ―  P1 (first year in primary school)

11. (dialectal) concubine