Comparing to 小,
少 contains an extra
丿at the bottom. What is its meaning? Let us check its evolution history to get some clue. (screenshot taken from http://chinese-linguipedia.org)
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| Learn one Chinese Character a day - 少 |
As we can see that Oracle Script of 少 -
is actually same as that of 小. They were same character when they were created! As time passed, three dots -
, which becomes 小, is used more to mean Small, while four dots -
, which becomes少, is used more to mean
Smaller or
Less. As 少 was created same as 小 originally, 少 can mean
Small too.
Let us enjoy a Chinese calligraphy with 少 inside:
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| 百川东到海，何时复西归。少壮不努力，老大徒伤悲。 |
As
and
are used to present abstract meaning like small, less and etc, how would Chinese ancestors create another character to mean sand then?
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