Answering my own question…
And the winner is: set the minEms attribute (android:minEms) !!!
So “ems” it turns out refers to the size of the widest character, typically an “M”, get it? So setting minEms to an integer value say 3, on an EditText or TextView should ensure it’s at least 3 characters wide. You can set the maxEms as well.
So Kyle’s answer on this thread, although wrong, caused me to find the answer, so thanks Kyle.