The word **渺小** (miǎoxiǎo), meaning "tiny" or "insignificant," is a compound formed through the combination of two characters with semantically reinforcing meanings. The first character, **渺**, originally depicts water (氵) and conveys a sense of vast, distant, and indistinct expanse, as of a boundless ocean, implying something almost invisible within that scale. The second character, **小**, is a straightforward pictogram meaning "small." Together, they create a powerful layered meaning: **渺** provides a metaphorical context of immense space or scope, while **小** specifies the quality of being minute. Thus, the compound does not merely denote physical smallness but evokes a profound sense of insignificance or triviality when viewed against something vast and boundless, making the smallness feel absolute and relative simultaneously.