The kanji 等等 primarily conveys the meanings of "etcetera," "and so on," "equal," "same," "similar," or "class/rank." It implies a collection of things, equality, or a category.

・On-yomi (音読み): 　・トウ (tou) ・Kun-yomi (訓読み): 　・など (nado) 　・等しい (ひとしい - hitoshii)

⚫︎学生など Translation: Students, etc. ⚫︎平等 Translation: Equality; fairness ⚫︎同等 Translation: Equivalent; the same level

The kanji 等等 is a 形声文字 (keisei moji), a phono-semantic compound character. It combines the radical 竹 (take, "bamboo") and the phonetic 寺 (tera, "temple"). The radical 竹 (bamboo) might have originally been a reference to something that categorizes, or measures in equal portions. The character's original meaning was related to "equal." Over time, the meaning expanded to encompass similar concepts such as "etc.," and "class."