About
僮 is a phono-semantic compound with the radical 亻 (person) on the left, indicating its human-related meaning, and the phonetic component 童 (tóng, "child") on the right. The character originally denoted a young male servant or pageboy, an underage attendant in a household. Its use is now largely confined to historical or literary contexts referring to such domestic servants, distinguishing it from 童 alone, which simply means a child without the connotation of servitude.
Etymology Hide
