TSUMUGU · B1 (est.) · 字
童
ㄊㄨㄥˊ · tóng
noun — child; adj — childish, of childhood
字源 FORM — what the parts do
IFTzhòng → tóng — initial, final and tone all shift
A marked youth — the old graph stood a tattooing-knife 辛 over a servant, the brand a captive or punished boy wore. That knife wore down to the flat 立 on top; below, 重 zhòng was squeezed into the shape we now read as 里, still carrying the sound. From the branded servant-child came the ordinary child: 兒童、童年、童話.
故事 STORY — a scene to remember it by
上頭一橫（辛磨平的痕），底下擠著個重（zhòng）——刻過記號的孩子。
The flat top (a knife 辛 worn smooth), and 重 zhòng pressed in beneath — the marked child.
字源記憶法
意 · Meanings
(本義)僮、奴— a branded servant-youth
→兒童、童年— a child; of childhood常用
⇒童話、童心— childlike — of a child's world
(本義) original meaning · → ⇒ each arrow = one more step of extension
關 · Related
重zhòngthe buried phonetic — 重 stands whole and heavy on its own; in 童 it is crushed into the 里 shape僮tóngthe original servant-sense, re-marked — 僮 adds a person 亻 to recover what 童 drifted from