Well, as to your daftness...I'm sure I'm not qualified to say! [eg]

You're right--in some instances, little can be...well, kind of belittling. Em. Not always, though. If someone apologizes to you for something, I don't think there's any difference if you say, "Oh, it was just a little thing" or "Oh, it was just a small thing". Or you can buy a small bottle of something, or a little bottle. No diff. that I can see. I guess it can vary acc'g. to the context, or possibly culturally. (She said, thinking of a couple of British friends who seem to think that the word cute should only be applied to extremely young beings.) I for one did not allow my daughter to refer to my son as her little brother--at least not in my hearing!--because although he is younger, he has been bigger than she ever since he was 4 years old.