The word 小子 is formed through the process of compounding, where two independent, meaningful characters are combined to create a new, unified concept. The first character, 小 (xiǎo), carries its core meaning of "small" or "young". The second character, 子 (zǐ), originally meaning "child" or "offspring", frequently acts as a nominal suffix. By joining them, 小 modifies 子, creating a fused term that conceptually points to a "small/young child" or, by extension, a "young person", with the combination solidifying into a single lexical unit.