What 殺 means
FA96 is a source-specific compatibility form of 殺.
The linked character 殺 means “kill” or “slaughter”; depending on context, it can also mean murder, harm, or cut down or reduce. FA96 preserves a source-specific written form, not a separate word or social meaning.
The character itself has a long history. An early form in oracle-bone writing—divination marks carved on bone or shell—has been read as a boar pierced in the head; later seal script reshaped it around a person-and-weapon element. 殺 also appears in Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese writing; readings and regional forms differ, while its core sense stays tied to killing.
Why is FA96 different from 殺?
It preserves a source glyph, not a different word.
The KPS 10721:2000 repertoire used in North Korea includes FA96 for source form KP1-4FA9; its reconstructed record marks 殺 as an erroneous glyph in one entry. Unicode encoded FA70–FAD9 for round-trip exchange with this repertoire and says these forms should not be used for other purposes.
Fonts can show FA96 and 殺 alike, differently, or as a missing-glyph box. Appearance alone cannot confirm which code point is present.
Technical and archival: in new text, it signals source preservation or testing, not a separate meaning.
For ordinary text, use 殺; normalization can erase FA96’s separate identity.
Don't confuse it with
4Questions people ask
1FA96 normalization: will it change the character?
Yes. Compatibility normalization maps FA96 to 殺 and loses the original code-point identity. If that distinction matters, preserve the original string and test each import, search, and export step.
How to type 殺
殺\FA96Codes and encoding1 code points
A visible symbol can contain several code points. JS .length counts UTF-16 units; UTF-8 counts bytes.