细微
xì wēi · HSK 7
tiny
🧵 细微 = 细 fine/thin (like thread) + 微 micro/tiny; both halves mean small, so it stacks up to subtle/minute
细 is the thin thread of silk (the 纟 radical); 微 is the prefix for micro- as in 微博 (micro-blog). Put two smallness words together and you get 细微: not just small but fine-grained and subtle.
细 — silk radical 糹 + 田 (field)
A semantic-phonetic compound. The silk radical 糹 supplies the meaning, since silk threads are fine and thin, giving 细 its sense of 'thin, fine, slender.' The right side 田 originally wrote 囟 (fontanel) as a phonetic hint, later simplified to 田 in modern script.