童

童 (Kangxi radical 117, 立+7, 12 strokes, cangjie input 卜廿田土 (YTWG), four-corner 0010₄, composition ⿱立里)

• 僮, 墥, 幢, 憧, 撞, 獞, 潼, 曈, 膧, 橦, 犝, 疃, 瞳, 穜, 𧘂, 䡴, 鐘(钟), 艟, 氃, 蕫, 罿, 𩪘, 𧘂, 𤺄

• Kangxi Dictionary: page 871, character 20
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 25775
• Dae Jaweon: page 1302, character 12
• Hanyu Da Zidian (first edition): volume 4, page 2711, character 9
• Unihan data for U+7AE5

Historical forms of the character 童
Shang	Western Zhou	Warring States	Shuowen Jiezi (compiled in Han)	Liushutong (compiled in Ming)
Oracle bone script	Bronze inscriptions	Chu slip and silk script	Small seal script	Transcribed ancient scripts

In oracle bone inscriptions, ideogrammic compound (會意／会意) : 䇂 (“chisel”) + 目 (“eye”) + 𡈼 (“person standing on soil”). It depicts a person getting their eye gouged out, a common punishment for slaves in ancient China. Compare 民, 臧.

In bronze inscriptions, the phonetic component 東 (OC *toːŋ) was added, making the character phono-semantic (形聲／形声) .

In the modern form 䇂 has corrupted into 立. The bottom 里 derives from 東 combining with 土, similar to 重.

“child; servant boy; virgin; bare”

Löffler (1966) compares it to Kukish dong (“boy”); see also Rengmitca tong-kléng' (“boy”), Areng thon-dén (“boy”) (Löffler, 1960). Schuessler (2007) also compares it to Hmong-Mien: White Hmong tub (“son”), Iu Mien dorn (“son”).

“shaman”

Norman and Mei (1976) proposed that the Min Chinese word for “shaman” (*-dəŋ^A), written as 童, is from an Austroasiatic substratum, cognate with Vietnamese đồng, Mon ဒံၚ် (tòŋ, “to dance while under daemonic possession; to proceed by leaps”), ဒေါၚ် (tòŋ, “shaman called in to organise kəlok dances”). This is rebutted in Sagart (2008), who cited the wide distribution of the sense “magician; sorcerer” in late 19th-century & early 20th-century Chinese and the secondary meaning of 童 as “servant; messenger”, describing the resemblance between the Min and Austroasiatic terms as “undoubtedly fortuitous”.

童

1. child

   兒童／儿童  ―  értóng  ―  child

   童子  ―  tóngzǐ  ―  boy

   童年  ―  tóngnián  ―  childhood

   這家商店童鞋有現貨。 [MSC, trad.]
   这家商店童鞋有现货。 [MSC, simp.]

   Zhè jiā shāngdiàn tóngxié yǒu xiànhuò. [Pinyin]

   The store had children's shoes in stock.

   那個病童的情況今天看起來比昨天更不妙。 [MSC, trad.]
   那个病童的情况今天看起来比昨天更不妙。 [MSC, simp.]

   Nà ge bìngtóng de qíngkuàng jīntiān kànqǐlái bǐ zuótiān gèng bùmiào. [Pinyin]

   The sick child looks still worse today than yesterday.

2. young servant; servant boy

   門童／门童  ―  méntóng  ―  doorman

   書童／书童  ―  shūtóng  ―  page boy

   球童  ―  qiútóng  ―  caddie

3. (Min, dialectal Mandarin, dialectal Wu) shaman
4. virgin
5. bare; exposed

   童山  ―  tóngshān  ―  bare hill

6. a surname

   童貫／童贯  ―  Tóng Guàn  ―  Tong Guan (Song dynasty court eunuch)

7. 12th tetragram of the Taixuanjing; "youthfulness" (𝌑)

(grade 3 “Kyōiku” kanji)

1. juvenile, child

• Go-on: ずう (zū)^{←づう (duu, historical)}
• Kan-on: とう (tō)
• Kan’yō-on: どう (dō, Jōyō)
• Kun: わらべ (warabe, 童, Jōyō); わっぱ (wappa, 童); わらし (warashi, 童); わらわ (warawa, 童)^{←わらは (warafa, 童, historical)}; わらんべ (waranbe, 童)
• Nanori: わか (waka); わらわ (warawa)

(The following entry is uncreated: わらし.)

From Middle Chinese 童 (MC duwng). Recorded as Middle Korean 도ᇰ (twong) (Yale: twong) in Hunmong Jahoe (訓蒙字會 / 훈몽자회), 1527.

Wikisource 童 (eumhun 아이 동 (ai dong))

1. Hanja form^? of 동 (“child”).

• 국제퇴계학회 대구경북지부 (國際退溪學會 大邱慶北支部) (2007). Digital Hanja Dictionary, 전자사전／電子字典.

童: Hán Nôm readings: đồng

1. (occult, divination) of mediums or divination

   bà đồng ― a female medium