Example sentences
wǒ我měi每tiān天xué学xí习liǎng两gè个xiǎo小shí时。
I study two hours every day.
wǒ我men们děng等le了yí一gè个xiǎo小shí时。
We waited for an hour.
About this word
小 is small, 时 is time, so an hour is literally a small time. The name records a change of unit. Chinese traditionally cut the day into twelve 时辰 of two hours each. When clock time arrived, the Western hour needed a name and it was the smaller of the two, so it became the small 时. 半小时 is half an hour, 两个小时 is two hours, and the measure word is 个.
The story behind the character
小
Three dots, like grains of sand. No story here. It just means tiny. Xu Shen wrote 小, 物之微也: "small, the slightness of things." Small enough to be a few specks.
时
The traditional 時 is 日 (sun) plus 寺 (sound). No clocks back then, so you read the sun to tell the time. That's why 时 has 日 in it. Where the sun sits is what time it is.