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I was writing in another fred when the thought attacked me: What is the difference between saying that something is "small" and that it is "little"? At first I thought there must be some semantic reason, but as I considered examples I got to thinking it might just be a usage thing. For instance: - It's quite different to say "a small boy" and "a little boy": the way I see it one always refers to size and the other always to age. Same if we say "a little dog" and "a small dog". - It's also different to say "a small lorry" and "a little lorry", but the difference here seems (to me) to lie in the connotations, with "small lorry" meaning a not-so-large-in-size lorry, and "little lorry" carrying the connotation of "a cute vehicle which almost looks like a toy". - However, there doesn't seem to be so much difference between saying "a small house" and "a little house". Same if we say "a small problem" or "a little problem". Or are there some connotative vibes I'm not getting here? Is this actually a non-issue and am I just being daft? 
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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.
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I'm with Jackie, here. It'd be rough to pin down a hard and fast rule with "little" and "small". Some of the rules are likely to vary from place to place. Jackie's example of "little brother" is a case in point. I've heard instances of diminutive women referring to some monstrous hulk as "my little brother." On the other hand the term "small minds" is belittling.
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> "small minds" is belittling - surely precisely because it is appealing to an objective fact that is extremely offensive if it can be thouhgt to be true? I sense that small get used as a more objective relative size term, whereas little depends much more on cultural context. Marianna, like the little brother who is in fact the Incredible Hulk, I have heard people refer to their "little house in the country" which is actually a larger-than-average family house compared with other rural houses... they use the diminutive term "little" to imply a range of connotations embodying other social prestiege markers and so on - just like patting the 'little boy' on the head and saying how cute he is!  I suspect this is in part because 'little' is such a favourite word used by young children: "There was this littwl littwl house, wiv a littwl littwl man, and the man had littwl littwl hands wiv littwl littwl fingers, and on his finger he had a littwl littwl ring, and on the ring..."
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old hand
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Hi Marianna,
I find this question anything but daft. In fact, it leads directly to the wide field (or swamp?) of idioms. To me little lorry doesn't sound quite right. Is it just the lilting alliteration which fits badly with the massive machine? On the other hand, there is a considerable difference between saying "we have a small problem" or "a little problem". In the first case, we are sure to solve it, while this looks less sure in the second case, which reverberates with irony.
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Quote:
I suspect this is in part because 'little' is such a favourite word used by young children: "There was this littwl littwl house, wiv a littwl littwl man, and the man had littwl littwl hands wiv littwl littwl fingers, and on his finger he had a littwl littwl ring, and on the ring..."
Is that a Welsh w?
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Mercy, yes--couldn't you hear it? Lit-tool!
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> Lit-tool now you're getting personal... 
formerly known as etaoin...
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Pooh-Bah
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What? You need reading glasses?
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Carpal Tunnel
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is that how you make it bigger?
formerly known as etaoin...
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