大惊小怪 (dà jīng xiǎo guài)

Character breakdown

• 大 (dà) · 3 strokes

  Depicts an adult man facing forward and standing erect. The meaning later shifted to "big".

• 惊 (jīng) · 11 strokes

  Phonosemantic compound. 忄 represents the meaning and 京 represents the sound. Simplified form of 驚.

• 小 (xiǎo) · 3 strokes

  Depicts three small dots, representing the meaning "small". Originally the same character as 少. The small dots possibly represent grains of sand (沙).

• 怪 (guài) · 8 strokes

  Phonosemantic compound. 忄 represents the meaning and 圣 represents the sound.

Usage

一点小事，不必大惊小怪的。

to make a fuss about nothing (idiom)

yì diǎn xiǎo shì ， bù bì dà jīng xiǎo guài de 。