Taxonomy of meanings for 童:　　

Additional information about 童

說文解字: 【童】，男有辠曰奴，奴曰童，女曰妾。 〔小徐本「辠」作「罪」。〕 从䇂、重省聲。 【徒紅切】 【𥫍(𥪽)】，籒文童，中與𥩓中同从廿。廿，以爲古文疾字。

Criteria
• BOY
  

  1. Tóng zǐ 童子 is the standard neutral word for a boy below the age of 15, but the strong connotation is that of ignorance and immaturity.

  2. Shù zǐ 豎子 refers to a boy as opposed to an infant, but very often often with strong pejorative force.

  3. Tóng 童 by itself is an archaic word referring to a boy, but the term enters freely into non-archaic binomes.

  4. Rú zǐ 孺子 can refer to a child of any sex, and certainly often refers to young girls, but like rú 孺 alone the word does sometimes refer specifically to boys regarded as catamites.

  5. Nán 男 refers generally to males, and only by extension to boys. Note incidentally that apparently even in Tang times a nán ér 男兒 tends to be a young man rather than a boy.

  6. Zǐ 子 refers generally to children, but it is often hard to distinguish the meaning from that of boy, when the reference obviously is to males. See CHILD.

  7. Ruò zǐ 弱子 refers to a (probably male) child as an object of maternal love, and there is pervasive doubt whether this term refers to a boy or a girl, although given traditional preoccupations with boys, one suspects the typical reference is taken to little boys needful of motherly care. See CHILD.

• OLD MAN
  

  1. Sǒu 叟 (ant. tóng 童 "young boy") and the somewhat rarer zhàng rén 丈人 (ant. hái tí 孩提 "child") refer respectfully to a venerable old man of some status.

  2. Fǔ 父 is a southern dialect word referring to an old man.

  3. Lǎo 老 (ant. yòu 幼 "young person") is a neutral term referring generically to the aged, including men and women.

  4. Wēng 翁 (ant. ér 兒 "young child") refers generally to an old man without suggestions of venerability, but the word became current only in Han times.

• SHIP
  

  1. The general term for any ship, large or small, is zhōu 舟. [The word occurs already in the oracle bone inscriptions and in SHIJING. According to some opinions it originally referred to the boat made of one piece of wood, but it is not certain. The earliest forms of the character resemble the small ship made already from several planks. Note that in Western Zhou times, ship also played certain role in some rituals performed by the king, which probably took place in the pool within royal palace.

  2. Chuán 船／舡 is a colloquial general term for a ship which emerged in Warring States times and became current under the Han. The word can refer specifically to larger ships. The word is still unknown in LUNYU and ZUOZHUAN, where the only general term for a ship is still zhōu 舟.

  3. Háng 杭／航 refers specifically to a ferry and became current first in Han times. (From the Warring States period, only the former character is known, the latter form came to be used in Han times. The word refers specifically to a ferry, but can be used also as a general term for a ship.

  4. Sōu 艘 is another general word for a ship which was in use particularly from the Han till Tang, and it was usually used as a measure word for a ship.

  5. Yú 俞 refers in SHUOWEN and HUAINANZI to the boat made of one piece of wood, the monoxylon. Whether the term referred to this type of boat in general already since early times is not certain. Note that one monoxylon (3,9 m long) dating from Shang times was found in Shandong province.

  6. Bó 舶 originally referred specifically to the large sea ships of the foreign traders reaching Canton area. Later it came to refer generally to large or sea ship.

  7. Fāng chuán 方船, fāng 舫 (the latter word first appeared in the Warring States period and became more current in Han times) refer to the double ship, ship consisting of two joined boats. This kind of ship could be used for various purposes (for transportation of goods or soldiers, as a warship, or to cross a river), and was in use at least from the Warring States period till Tang; the period during it most flourished was neverthless Jin dynasty.

  8. Gě 舸 refers generally to a large ship; according to FANG YAN, in Han times the word was used in an area on the middle reaches of Chang jiang.

  9. Biàn 艑 refers to the large ship, used probably mainly for transportation of goods, which was used in the middle and lower reaches of the Chang jiang.

  10. Tà 榻 is the general word for a large ship, which was in use mainly from the North Southern dynasties till Tang period.

  11. Cáo 艚 is the post-Buddhist word referring to the transportation ship. It was large and slow.

  12. Líng (written like 舟令 ) refers specifically to the small ship with vindows. In the Warring States and Han period, it was in use particularly in the area of ancient states Wu and Yue.

  13. Dāo 刀 / (written like 舟刀 ) refers to a small boat. The word occurs already in SHIJING.

  14. Mù sù (written like 舟冒; 舟宿 chā 艖 ) all refer to the small and narrow boats, and according to FANG YAN, were used in the middle reaches of Chang jiang.

  15. Tǐng 艇 refers to the boat even smaller than the previous, with space for one or two people. According to HUAINANZI, this was originally used in the area of Sichuan.

  16. Qióng (written like 舟共 ) refers to the small boat used mainly in the middle reaches of the Chang jiang.

  17. Lì 麗 refers to a small boat. The word occurs already in ZHUANGZI.

  18. Dié 艓 refers to the small boat.

  19. Zé měng 舴艋 refers to the small boat.

  20. (I can not find a character in the dictionary: written like 舟鳥 ) refers to the small and narrow boat.

  21. Sān yì 三翼 refers to the battleships which were in use in the southern states of Wu and Yue in Chunqiu and Warring States times. It seems that they were divided to three categories according to their size. According to Han sources, the largest ones had a space for 91 men, those of middle size for 50 men, and minor for 26 men. Note that the earliest ship battle is mentioned in ZUOZHUAN to 549 B.C., and it took place on a river; the first sea battle is dated to 484 B.C. As can be seen on pictorial presentations dating from the late Chunqiu and early Warring States period, ship battles esentially resembled battles on the earth; the ships pulled with oars came close one to the other and warriors staying on the higher board attacked enemies with arrows, halberds, and spears.

  22. Yú huáng 余 / 艅皇 / 艎 was in Chunqiu times the name of the large battleship belonging to the kings of Wu. Later it came to be used as a general term for a large battleship.

  23. Mào tū 冒突 came to use in the Eastern Han period and referred to the battleship which could directly clash into the ship of enemies.

  24. Lóu chuán 樓船 refers to the battleship with several boards. These came to use already in the late Chunqiu period, and were used till Ming times.

  25. Gē chuán 戈船 refers to the large battleship which was in use from the late Chunqiu till the Southern and Northern dynasties. It obtained its name from halberds and spears put on its board; perhaps general word for a battleship (???).

  26. Méng chōng 艨童舟童 refers to a smaller battleship used to clash into the battleships of enemies. It has two boards, the lower for oarmen and higher for warriors; moreover it was covered with fresh oxen skins to defend firearrows of the enemies. In use since the Three Kingdoms.

  27. Jiàn 艦 refers to the large battleship with wooden battlements which came to be used in the Three Kingdoms.

• CHILD
  

  1. The commonest word for a child is zǐ 子 "son; child (male or female); rarely: baby".

  2. Ér 兒 refers to children of fairly young age.

  3. Tóng 童 refers to a person as a young child without focusing on whose child it is and the word is often used in compounds.

  4. Gōng zǐ 公子 refers specifically to a prince or son by a royal father and his main wife. See PRINCE.

  5. Chì zǐ 赤子 refers to a fairly small or new-born child.

  6. Ruò zǐ 弱子 and 童子 refer to a very young child.

  7. Xiǎo zǐ 小子 is often used for small children but can also refer to people lower in hierachy as for example the disciples of a master (often when the master is addressing them); in addition it is sometimes used by the ruler (when mourning for his parents) and by high officers as humble first person pronoun.

  8. Rǔ zǐ 孺子 can refer to very young children, but the word can also refer more generally to youths, especially girls.

Word relations
• Ant: (SIMPLE)樸 / 樸/SIMPLE The current word for unadorned simplicity is pǔ 樸 (ant. lì 麗 "beautifully patterned"). 1 Attribution
• Epithet: (BOY)謠/SONG Yáo 謠 refers to a folksong, mostly in ancient texts to a children's ditty, with a more or less fixed melody, but the focus seems to be on the text and there is no accompanying music involved.
• Assoc: (BOY)蒙/STUPID Bì 蔽 and měng 蒙 (all ant. cōng 聰 "clever") , refer to an appearance of stupidity due to limited access to information. a state of stupidity that is typically construed as remediable. 1 Attribution