In Mandarin Chinese, 小 (Pinyin: xiǎo 🔊) means “small”, “short”, “little”, “minor”, “young” and such like. We’ve already seen 小 as a part of another character, 少 .
Wiktionary provides two interpretations of 小:
- It shows a person (人) with lowered arms, implying the meaning of small. In contrast, 大 (the character for large), symbolizes a person (人) with arms outstretched.
- It shows an item divided into smaller parts 八 by a knife 亅.
Ponte Ryūrui, quoting Xǔ Shèn, writes that
小 represents small objects (such as shells or precious stones), or, more precisely, one object that was divided (the division is symbolised by “｜”) into eight parts (hence the shape of 八...)
Uncle Hanzi is more laconic:
Pictograph of three dots. Meaning small pieces.
More photos of sea glass @ Shutterstock.
