Where does “小説” come from?

小説 (Japanese) comes from Japanese 小, from Old Japanese ささ.

小説 (Japanese): novel, story, fiction

Definitions

  1. novel, story, fiction

Ancestry of “小説”, step by step

小説 traces back through two separate lines of ancestry.

via Japanese 小

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1Japanese小smallness; small size, small; Short for 小の月;...
2Old Japaneseささ—

via Japanese 説

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1Japanese説theory
2Middle Chinese說—

Words derived from “小説”

Every word from Old Japanese ささ →Every word from Japanese 小 →