What does the phrase "little big" mean?
What does the phrase "little big" mean?
Samples (game titles):
- Little big planet
- Little big adventures
- Little big magazine
It usually implies that something is little in one way but big in another; for example, a game may want to imply that it is "little" in being approachable and friendly, but "big" in having lots of things to do.
My take on the titles you mention is that "little" refers to physical size, and "big" refers to aspiration or scope. So "little big magazine" would be a small sized magazine aspiring to cover a great deal of subject matter.
"Little big" isn't really a standard phrase in English, so it's subject to interpretation. It's meant to be more evocative than precise.
In the above cases you could take it to mean something that is suitable for both little and big people (children and adults), or something that is big in scope but miniature in size.
Probably best known is the Battle of Little Big Horn of 1876 (other spacing and names are also used). It is named for the nearby Little Big Horn River, a tributary of the Big Horn River, in turn a tributary of the Yellowstone River, and then the Missouri River and Mississippi River.
The apparent oxymoron makes it easy to remember, but in fact little does not apply to big but to Big Horn River; similarly big does not apply to Horn River, but river applies to big horn. I would not be surprised is your examples copied this.