兒

兒 (Kangxi radical 10, 儿+6, 8 strokes, cangjie input 竹難竹山 (HXHU), four-corner 7721₇, composition ⿱臼儿)

• 倪, 唲, 堄, 婗, 𡸣, 𢏱, 掜, 淣, 猊, 𨺙, 晲, 棿, 𤊓, 𤦤, 𫀗, 腉, 𮍩, 𤾆, 睨, 𥓋, 䘽, 𭘉, 䋩, 䍲, 聣, 𦩊, 蜺, 𦦃, 觬, 誽(𰵵), 貎, 輗(𫐐), 𫒪, 𠆔, 𰃓, 䮘, 𩩢, 鯢(鲵), 鶃(𱊄), 𪕨, 齯(𫠜), 𦦿
• 𫐰, 𡮅, 郳, 𫻻, 㪒, 𣣉, 𧡎, 鶂(𱊈/𬷼), 𠓔, 𡥲, 𬎸, 𠒰, 𭀹, 𡸢, 萖, 𦋌, 𤾇, 𮅙, 𠒯, 𮍜, 霓, 𪓬(𱌅), 𠩫, 𭙢, 𤷅, 麑, 䦧(阋), 鬩

• 児 (Japanese shinjitai, also a variant form)
• 儿 (Simplified Chinese)

• Kangxi Dictionary: page 125, character 3
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 1365
• Dae Jaweon: page 265, character 6
• Hanyu Da Zidian (first edition): volume 1, page 272, character 5
• Unihan data for U+5152

Historical forms of the character 兒
Shang	Western Zhou	Warring States		Shuowen Jiezi (compiled in Han)	Liushutong (compiled in Ming)
Oracle bone script	Bronze inscriptions	Chu slip and silk script	Qin slip script	Small seal script	Transcribed ancient scripts
Oracle bone script j20471 j20472 j20473 j20474 j20475 j20476 j20477 j20478 j20479 j20480 j20481 j20482 j20483 j20484 j20485 j20486 j20487 j20488 j20489 j20490 j20491 j20492 j20493 j20494 j20495 j20496 j20497 j20498 j20499 j20500 j20501 j20502 j20503 j20504 j20505 j20506 j20507 j20508 j20509 j20510 j20511 j20512 j20513 j20514 j20515 j20516 j20517 j20518 j20519 Bronze inscriptions b13458 b13459 b13460 b13461 b13462 b13463 b13464 b13465 b13466 b13467 Small seal script s06201 Transcribed ancient scripts L30087 L30088 L30089 L30090 L30091 L01143 L01144 L01145 L01146 L01147 L01148 L01149 L01150 L01151
References: Mostly from Richard Sears' Chinese Etymology site (authorisation), which in turn draws data from various collections of ancient forms of Chinese characters, including: Shuowen Jiezi (small seal), Jinwen Bian (bronze inscriptions), Liushutong (Liushutong characters) and Yinxu Jiaguwen Bian (oracle bone script).

Pictogram (象形) : an infant with an imperfect cranium (i.e. fontanelle).

From Proto-Sino-Tibetan *m/s-ŋa-j (“small; inferior; offspring”) (STEDT). Cognate with Burmese ငယ် (ngai, “little; young”), Jingpho shangai (ʃă³¹ ŋai³¹, “to give birth”).

According to Schuessler (2007), it may be an area word; compare Proto-Mon-Khmer *ŋa(i)k (“baby”), Proto-Bahnaric *ŋaː (“baby”), Khmer ង៉ា (ngaa, “infant; baby”). The word is also cognate with 倪 (OC *ŋeː, “small and weak”). 伢 is the southern dialectal form of 兒 (MC nye, “child; son”).

兒

1. (now in compounds) child

   兒童／儿童  ―  értóng  ―  child

   嬰兒／婴儿  ―  yīng'ér  ―  infant child; baby

2. one's own child; son

   兒孫／儿孙  ―  érsūn  ―  child(ren) and grandchild(ren)

   妻兒／妻儿  ―  qī'ér  ―  wife and child(ren)

   一兒一女／一儿一女  ―  yī ér yī nǚ  ―  one son and one daughter

3. (now in compounds) (male) adolescent

   健兒／健儿  ―  jiàn'ér  ―  good athlete

   • 遂習宮中女，皆如馬上兒。 [Classical Chinese, trad.]
     遂习宫中女，皆如马上儿。 [Classical Chinese, simp.]

     From: 白居易 (Bai Juyi), 《雜興三首》

     Suì xí gōngzhōng nǚ, jiē rú mǎ shàng ér. [Pinyin]

     (please add an English translation of this usage example)

4. (attributive, of animals) male

   兒馬／儿马  ―  érmǎ  ―  male horse

5. Non-syllabic noun diminutive suffix.

   盆兒／盆儿  ―  pénr  ―  small basin

   小狗兒／小狗儿  ―  xiǎogǒur  ―  puppy

6. Suffix after nouns that does not indicate diminutiveness.

   味兒／味儿  ―  wèir  ―  taste

   汁兒／汁儿  ―  zhīr  ―  juice

   電影兒／电影儿  ―  diànyǐngr  ―  film

7. Suffix added to some verbs or adjectives to form nouns.

   吃兒／吃儿  ―  chīr  ―  food; something to eat

   亮兒／亮儿  ―  liàngr  ―  light

   尖兒／尖儿  ―  jiānr  ―  tip

   短兒／短儿  ―  duǎnr  ―  fault

8. Suffix after a limited number of verbs.

   玩兒／玩儿  ―  wánr  ―  to play

   火兒／火儿  ―  huǒr  ―  to be angry

9. Suffix after certain nouns that result in a different meaning from the unsuffixed form.

   頭兒／头儿  ―  tóur  ―  chief; leader

   白麵兒／白面儿  ―  báimiànr  ―  heroin

   老家兒／老家儿  ―  lǎojiār  ―  one's elders

10. Suffix after reduplicated adjectives.

    慢慢兒／慢慢儿  ―  mànmānr  ―  slowly

• 儿 may be used to specially write erhua (or the rhotic sound) in traditional Chinese, in contrast with 兒／儿 (ér, “child”).
  • 1950, 林濤 (Lin Tao), 定型化新文字 [Dingshinghua Sin Wenz], 2nd edition, 生活·讀書·新知三聯書店:

    有人把拉丁化新文字的方案跟寫法看做神聖不可侵犯的東西，不准有一點儿改變 […]

    There are some who believe that the Latinxua Sin Wenz scheme and spelling are sacred things that should not be violated, and that there must not be even the tiniest bit of change […]

    r念“儿”只有“兒”“二”“而”這幾個字 […]

    When r is read as 儿, the only candidates are "child", "two", and "and" […]

• 儿 may be written as a smaller character.
  • 1968, 趙元任 (Yuen Ren Chao), 語言問題 [Problems in Linguistics], 臺灣商務印書館, page 83:

    固然平常念一個單字的時候，重音的音節在樂音上也是高一點儿，不過它不一定老是這個樣子。

    Admittedly, when pronouncing a word, the stressed syllable is, musically speaking, also a bit higher-pitched, but this is not necessarily always the case.

  • 2001, 中華人民共和國教育部, 國家語言文字工作委員會, 第一批異形詞整理表 [The First Series of Standardized Forms of Words with Non-standardized Variant Forms]‎, archived from the original on 3 August 2019, page 11:

    红果儿（红*菓儿） hóngguǒr