小屋
こや · koya · JLPT N3 · noun
hut
🛖 小屋 = small (小 ko) + house (屋 ya): a little house, so a hut
小 is read ko, as in 小犬 koinu (puppy), and 屋 ya means house or shop, as in 本屋 hon'ya (bookshop). A small building is a hut, cabin or shed.
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.
屋 — corpse 尸 + reach/arrive 至
屋 originally depicted a place where one arrives (至) to rest under a roof, with 尸 here representing a covering or dwelling rather than a corpse. The character came to mean 'house' or 'room'. Today it commonly refers to a house or a room within a building.