Where does “大小” come from?

大小 (Japanese) comes from Japanese 大, from Old Japanese 大, from Proto-Japonic əpə — big, large; many.

大小 (Japanese): large and small; the traditional Japanese pair of...

Definitions

  1. large and small; the traditional Japanese pair of...

Ancestry of “大小”, step by step

大小 traces back through two separate lines of ancestry.

via Japanese 大

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1Japanese大big, large; the large part of; arch-
2Old Japanese大big, large; large
3Proto-Japonicəpəbig, large; many

via Japanese 小

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1Japanese小smallness; small size, small; Short for 小の月;...
2Old Japaneseささ—
Every word from Proto-Japonic əpə →Every word from Old Japanese 大 →Every word from Japanese 大 →