寥寥无几
liáo liáo wú jǐ · HSK 7
just a very few
🤏 无几 = without + several = barely any; 寥寥 doubles the word for sparse
寥 means sparse or scanty, repeated as 寥寥 to stress how thin things are spread. 无几 literally reads no several, so the whole idiom adds up to a tiny number you could count on one hand.
无 — top 一 + 林-like middle + fire radical 灬 below
Originally a pictograph of a person dancing while holding ornaments or tassels, meaning 'to dance' — the ancestor of 舞. It was borrowed phonetically to write the negative 'not have / without,' and the dance meaning was reassigned to 舞 with an added foot element. The simplified form 无 comes from an ancient variant.
几 — single component: small table 几
几 is a pictograph of a small low table or stool, showing two legs supporting a flat top. It originally meant 'a small table' and still carries that sense in words like 茶几 (tea table). It was later borrowed phonetically for the unrelated meaning 'how many / several' (jǐ), which is now its most common use.