侶 companion, friend, sexual partner, follower, retinue, person who 'has someone's back'; person sliding rod behind backside of a friend 亻,呂,

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MingLiU:

Mincho:

Gothic:

侶

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On-yomi [ Toggle rōmaji ]

リョ　･　ロ
RYO　･　RO

Kun-yomi

とも
to　mo

Glyph elements [ Toggle Font ]

亻

× person (male generally), rod head, head on rod

　THE HEAD OF AN ANIMAL OR PERSON and VERTICAL, RECIPROCATING MOTION, ONE'S ROD, STALK OR STEM
　

呂

ロ,リョ,せぼね various holes or orifices that are connected, humming, low musical sounds, sounding a low tone; backbone, spine, backside (as a body part)

　ENCLOSURES, ORIFICES CONNECTED
　

Meanings of elements

PERSON with TWO CONNECTED ORIFICES
…or: ROD HEAD SLIDING with TWO CONNECTED ORIFICES
…or: PERSON with BACKBONE
…or: BLOWING PIPE of ROD HEAD
…or: PERSON HUMMING LOW TONES
…or: ROD HEAD SLIDING with BACKSIDE BODY PART
…or: ROD HEAD SLIDING with JUXTAPOSED ORIFICES, ROWDY BEHAVIOR and emphasis within FEMALE-FEMALE RELATIONS, CAUSING A HUMMING SOUND

「People connected」or「person with spine」or a「rod head sliding with which one connects to various orifices (see 橋)」that means one's SEXUAL PARTNER and probably needs no further explanation, other than to point out that anciently the Chinese copulated generally from the rear, hence「person with spine」makes sense.「Connected people」as FOLLOWER, and COMPANION applies to any or all of these situations. Right element as a stand-alone glyph is literally「connected orifices.」Many species of animals possessing a cloaca, such as birds, copulate by「connecting two orifices.」「Person sounding tones」or a「person as pitch pipe for tuning」your behavior also refers to SEXUAL PARTNER, a RETINUE OF CONCUBINES as FOLLOWERS and COMPANIONS, a concept expressed in other glyphs as well. Perhaps source of the aphorism「if you want to have friends, be friendly」by taking turns doing one another in the harem.
「Person with mouth connected to orifice with emphasis」suggests what is known colloquially as a「person with hum job, humming, a humdinger」in a cunningly cooperative manner that can only be performed by a PARTNER.
Perhaps it needn't be mentioned, but male-male relationships do not normally connect orifice-to-orifice, although no one is saying that it isn't done from time to time….「Person connecting orifice to orifice」generally implies kissing, cunnilingus, and frottage tribadism as genital-genital rubbing also common among bonobos:
「Sometimes females would rather GG-rub with each other than copulate with a male. Parish filmed a 15-minute scene at a bonobo colony at the San Diego Wild Animal Park in which a male, Vernon, repeatedly solicited two females, Lisa and Loretta. Again and again he arched his back and displayed his erect penis—the bonobo request for sex. The females moved away from him, tactfully turning him down until they crept behind a tree and GG-rubbed with each other.」
[ https://www.discovermagazine.com/mind/casual-sex-play-common-among-bonobos 2023-05-14 ]

External source definitions …excluding politically incorrect concepts and other meanings deemed offensive today; may include extended definitions, euphemisms, and mnemonics)
Chinese: companion
Japanese EDRDG: companion, follower
Unihan extended: companion; associate with

Always keep in mind that these glyphs most likely were originally designed by groups of clever old men as vulgar riddles for their own entertainment (see 籒 for that), representing Chinese society many thousands of years ago, but intended NOT as a written or spoken language when created. If these glyphs had been intended for language use, the sages could not have possibly designed a worse system! Is it truly possible that all these glyphs started out as off-color jokes and puzzles? Yes! It is, and often with multiple correct answers to each riddle, the same as is true today. Sex had no shame in ancient China. Why would it? But, have there been necessary rewrites and altered explanations of the original elemental meanings over the centuries?

No one is suggesting these glyphs depict contemporary life in China, Japan, or anywhere else. This site describes glyph meanings, not people. These glyphs however, describe many and various things, including people, long before there were any notions of becoming politically incorrect. The question to be answered is, should these glyphs continue being used, by anyone, anywhere, for expressing language? (More...) Despite how seemingly bad our human existence is today, do you actually believe that the so-called good old days were any better? Or could they have been worse?

By the way, with a limited number of the same elements used by the sages again and again to form these glyphs, you should expect to find the same explanations again and again, as tedious as that may become, and as an inherent trait of any lexicon. This site explains multiple meanings of glyphs ignored or censored by other sources, generally as being too embarrassing to admit today.