僚

Phono-semantic compound:

人 (“person”) — semantic component

尞 (“to burn brightly; light”) — phonetic component, appears in several characters conveying the reading "ryo", and here provides the sound. The original meaning was an officer or functionary, hence “a person (人) belonging to a bureau / office.”

Historically, 僚 and 寮 are interchangeable in the meaning of “officials,” “bureau members,” “colleagues in office.”

This is why classical sources use 百僚 and 百寮 as synonyms.

僚 is mostly used in administrative terms, rarely as an independent word.

동료 (同僚) — colleague (originally same-rank government colleague)

관료 (官僚) — bureaucrat

백료 (百僚) — all officials of the court

변방료 (邊方僚) — frontier officials

요직료 (要職僚) — important government officials

료속 (僚屬) — subordinate officers / staff in the same bureau

료사 (僚司) — fellow officials of the same department

Important note about 동료:

In Sino-Korean compounds, 同僚 (동료) originally meant “a colleague who works in the same government office and holds the same rank.”

Modern Korean has generalized “동료” to mean “colleague” in any workplace, but the classical usage does not refer to just any coworker.

The “pretty / graceful” sense appears mainly in classical poetry and is no longer active.

Classical citations:

《書經·舜典》 (The Book of Documents)

「肆予以爾有眾僚，夙夜匪懈。」

“Thus I, together with you and your many officers (僚), must be diligent day and night without rest.”

《後漢書·百官志》 (The Book of Later Han Dynasty)

「百僚總已，咸遵典憲。」

“All the officials (百僚) conducted themselves properly, following established laws and regulations.”