What 躵 means
Read it from context: 躵 can mean endure, hide, or aim.
Japanese dictionaries give こらえる (koraeru), しのぶ (shinobu), and ねらう (nerau): bearing something, staying out of sight, and aiming at a target. A Chinese dictionary records Mandarin rěn for the same character and marks the concealment sense as Japanese. The surrounding word picks the translation.
Where did 躵 come from?
Japan coined it; old word lists carry the trail.
The earliest written trail is Japanese: a reference on Japan-made characters ties 躵 to 運歩色葉集, 増刊下学集, and several 節用集 (Setsuyōshū) manuscripts (old word lists) with readings around ねらう and ためらう. A Kagoshima Prefectural compilation preserves 躵物 in an archery record, a real attestation of the aiming sense.
Dictionaries read the shape as 身 ('body') plus a variant of 忍 and class it as a 国字 (kokuji), a character coined in Japan, not borrowed from China. The consulted sources, as of 2026, show no inventor or earlier Chinese attestation; 躵 and 忍 are linked by construction but separate characters.
Should I send 躵 by itself?
Only if the reader already knows the word or character.
Alone, it leaves the recipient choosing among several readings. Send it with the Japanese word or a gloss; for a quick reaction, use a familiar symbol.
Rare and specialist: a deliberate Japanese vocabulary choice, not a casual reaction.
Standalone use has no stable chat convention as of 2026; the recipient must guess the reading.
What it means when someone sends it to you
4 readingsDon't confuse it with
1Questions people ask
2Why does 躵 look different in my font?
It can. Fonts draw this rare character differently; the glyph shape can vary while the character stays the same.
Is 躵 Chinese or Japanese?
Japanese, in practice. A Chinese dictionary records the Mandarin reading rěn, but the documented usage (old word lists, an archery record) is Japanese.
How to type 躵
躵\8EB5Codes and encoding1 code points
A visible symbol can contain several code points. JS .length counts UTF-16 units; UTF-8 counts bytes.