I still don’t see 子 as small sticks in this context and can’t find any reference to support your claim. Seems to me to be a pretty common suffix: 狮子,孩子, for example.

BTW if you use 棍 for stick in the context of chopsticks, the Chinese would just laugh their heads off since 棍 is more often used to denote much larger “sticks” as in broomsticks , long shovel stick, a lond rod or even a weapon such as those Shaolin monks often use or the stick you see in pictures of the monkey king. Consequently I would love to see you use 筷 棍 to eat your food, LOL. So, “nice try, but a little fact-checking would’ve been in order” right back at you and a big fat raspberry to go with it too just to keep things lighthearted

Touche, I was breezily refering to the radical 快 but you are correct on the full Chinese characters for chopsticks. However radicals within individual Chinese characters contribute not just a phonetic component, but also lend other sublet meanings and aspects (note the different radicals appended to the character for gold to differentiate different metals) which in this case means quick to make from bamboo 筷 while 子 can also mean small sticks in this context. The Chinese language like many other languages is not just about grammatic technicalities or “spelling”, but also about context and composition, which is also why I find that simplified Chinese writing easier but also alot less elegant, less descriptive and meaningful than the traditional Chinese script.

Oh, and Chinese food is quick to cook, but takes ages in the preparation- all that chopping things into small pieces is quite time-consuming.

And Josh, I agree whole-heartedly, chopsticks/kuàizi/筷子 are most excellent implements.