或多或少
huò duō huò shǎo · HSK 7
more or less
⚖️ 或多或少 = or(或) + more(多) + or(或) + less(少) — literally or-more-or-less
或 — 戈 dagger-axe + 口 mouth/area + 一 boundary line
或 originally depicted a dagger-axe (戈) guarding a bounded territory (口 with 一), meaning 'country' or 'domain' — the ancestor of 國/国. Over time it was borrowed for the abstract sense 'perhaps, maybe, or,' so a new 囗 enclosure was added around it to write the original 'country' meaning.
多 — two 夕 (evening) stacked
多 originally depicted two pieces of meat (夕, a variant of 肉) stacked together, suggesting abundance. Over time it was reanalyzed as two 'evenings' piled up — many evenings meaning many days, hence 'many, much'. The doubling itself conveys quantity.
或 — 戈 dagger-axe + 口 mouth/area + 一 boundary line
或 originally depicted a dagger-axe (戈) guarding a bounded territory (口 with 一), meaning 'country' or 'domain' — the ancestor of 國/国. Over time it was borrowed for the abstract sense 'perhaps, maybe, or,' so a new 囗 enclosure was added around it to write the original 'country' meaning.
少 — 小 (small) + 丿 (slash stroke)
Originally a pictograph showing four small dots or grains, suggesting 'few' or 'small in quantity'. Over time it became distinguished from 小 (small) by adding a downward stroke. The core meaning shifted toward 'few' or 'little in number', while 小 kept the sense of physical smallness.