How does 力 relate to the meaning in 幼?

Question

At the current moment, I am currently researching on the origins of character 幼 (yòu; young, underage, child) and so far, I think I'm sort of stumped with figuring out the composition (or explanation) if the character.

Now from my understanding, I am well full aware that 幼 (*ʔiw-s) is composed of semantic and phonetic clue 幺 (*ʔˤ[i]w; silk threads) and semantic 力 (plow). However the only difficulty I have with this character is finding out on how the component 力 relates to the meaning 'young'.

A few explanations I've came across don't seem to clarify on this. Outlier Dictionary for example explains that 力 is a 'form component' even though it does not go into detail about the role of this component as shown here:

FORM

幼 yòu is composed of 幺 yāo “a small amount of silk; small amount” and 力 “strength, force, power,” pointing to the original meaning “young.” 幺 also gives the sound.

COMPONENTS

幺

[S] In 幼 yòu, 幺 yāo “a small amount of silk; small amount” is both a sound component and a form component. [Reference, p. 271]

力

[S] In 幼, 力 “strength, force, power” is a form component, pointing to the original meaning “young.”

漢語多功能字庫 on the other hand however explains 幼 as 'a rope tied under a plow' and assumes one of the original meanings as 'to use little strength'. This is as shown here:

Elaboration: 甲金文從「幺」從「力」，「力」象翻土的農具(耒)形，「幺」象絲線形，一說象耒下綁繫繩索，是古代耦耕的用具，耕種時一人踏耒入土，一人拉索(金文形義通解)。一說本義是力量微少，引申為小(馬敍倫)。/ Elaboration: The oracle bone and bronze inscriptions is composed of 「幺」 and 「力」. 「力」 depicts a farming instrument (a plow) for turning the soil and 「幺」 depicts a rope tied under the plow. One theory is that it depicts a rope tied under a plow, which could be a farming tool used by two people in ancient times. In farming, one person would step to push the plow into the soil while the other pulled on the rope (金文形義通解). One theory is that it originally meant 'to use little strength,' which was then extended to mean 'young.' (Ma Xulun)

I'm kind of stuck here figuring out how 力 relates to 幼 as most sources I've came across to reference to do not seem to clarify on the role of 力. Some say 幼 was a picture of a rope tied under a plow, but I can't be too sure about that yet since I'm unsure about what 幼 is supposed to convey and how it came to mean 'young.'

So now the question I'm wondering, how does 力 relate in any way to 幼's meaning, 'young'? What is even the glyph origin for this character with these two components?

Answer 1

↑The transformation of the glyph of 幼 in Chinese history (sourced from Reference 1). It may help to understand the connection between the glyph and the meaning of 幼.

The answers to your both questions in short are:

• Q1 - the origins of character 幼: 甲金文從「幺」從「力」，…… 引申為小(馬敍倫)。 Just as prismcool posted, the origin is from the picture composed of a silk string and a farm tool (left most in the illustration). 幼's meaning when created might be 'weak in strengh', but its widely-used meaning is 'young in age', because one could imagine 力小 by 年幼. 年幼 causes 力小.
• Q2 - why 力 is in 幼, what is the relation: The composition of 幼 is by 会意 / compound ideographs, which means its meaning derives from the jointly understanding of every components of the glyph. As history proceeds, the glyph structure of two components remains the same, while one partial of it gradually becomes to 力, referring the shape of the farm tool. Notes that some opinions consider that 力 refers to strength as an extra meaningful extension.

Now 幼's meaning (as an adj.) ] includes 'young in age' (e.g. 幼小，年幼), 'young born' (e.g. 幼虫，幼苗), and 'immature, not sophisticated' (e.g. 幼稚，幼嫩).

Reference:

[1]幼的解释. In the link are more details about the explanation of 幼, including vast examples in written language from ancient to modern.

[2]六书. 会意 is one of the six classifications of Chinese characters (六书), you can wiki it for details.

[3]幼（汉语汉字）. Opinions of 力 as a meaningful extension.