Bit of a random question, but in コンビニ人間 I was a bit stumped by the character 瘦 for a while.
Eventually I realised it is an older version of 痩せる.
In Jisho.org at least it mentions ‘Out-dated kanji or kanji usage’.
I wondered whether this is a accident/has no particular nuance, or whether there is some nuance 瘦せる adds.
Apparently it’s just the 旧字体/traditional form of the kanji: 瘦 - Wiktionary, the free dictionary
As such I wouldn’t expect the meaning to be very different, just maybe a bit more formal/bookish/dated?
Some authors use it. There are a number of common kanji where even contemporary authors prefer to use the older kanji. Whenever I ask someone about why they just shrug their shoulders and tell me it’s personal preference. Always it is kanji that are easy to read and if not then there should be furigana. E.g., 殼・殻
Thank you both, I guess I will just chalk it up as just one of those things.
I’m trying to read more this year, so maybe I’ll get used to particularly common 旧字体. But I’ve still got more than enough regular kanji to learn, so equally I won’t worry too much over them.
read the English version of the book, very interesting read
Traditional character. It wasn’t a part of the original 当用漢字 list (which was originally seen as a restriction, so the government never bothered simplifying the characters outside of it). As for your question, the characters are identical in meaning. In fact, you can write everything in traditional characters (and while you’re at it traditional kana orthography) if you want, however don’t expect everyone to understand haha.
