小气
xiǎo qì · HSK 7
stingy
🪙 小 small + 气 air/spirit = small-spirited, too small to share = stingy
小 means small and 气 means air or spirit. Someone who is small-spirited holds their breath and their money tight, hence stingy or petty. The literal small + air maps directly onto narrow-minded miserliness.
小 — three small strokes around a central vertical
小 is a pictograph originally showing three tiny dots or specks, suggesting small particles or grains. Over time the dots became stylized strokes flanking a central line. The core meaning 'small' has stayed remarkably stable from oracle bone script to today.
气 — steam/vapor radical 气
Originally a pictograph of rising vapor or clouds drifting in the sky, depicting curling streams of air. The character came to mean breath, air, and by extension vital energy or 'qi.' The simplified form 气 keeps the original outline; the traditional 氣 added 米 (rice) to suggest steam rising from cooking grain.