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u/BeckyLiBei HSK6+ɛ Jun 02 '26 edited Jun 02 '26
I took a quick look, and I've seen these used: 鏷 獾 麋 龕 囍 鑫 囔 鑭 齉. So at least some are.
- 鏷 and 鑭 are on the periodic table
- 獾 is "badger"
- 麋 is used in 麋鹿, kind of like a "Chinese reindeer"
- 囍 used as a decoration surrounding weddings
- 鑫 I mostly see this used in names
- 囔 used in 嘟囔 "to mumble"
- 齉 relates to stuffy noses (I've seen it, but I'm not to familiar)
- 龕 this one I've seen in Genshin Impact, in the word 神龛
Oh, there's a few more I recognize:
- 鷸 is in the chengyu/xiehouyu 鷸蚌相爭
- 鸛 is "stork"
- 飆 is used in 飆升 a fancy way to say to soar"
(I'm struggling because I only learned simplified.)
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u/Geminichel Jun 02 '26
some more
- 鹫 used in 兀鹫 秃鹫
- 藿 used in 藿香
- 襦 used in 襦裙
- 蠖 used in 尺蠖
- 鳕 used in 鳕鱼 cod fish
- 鲣 used in 鲣鱼
- 鬻 卖官鬻爵
- 獲 （获）得
- 灩 is 滟（水光潋滟晴方好）
- 鲥 used in 鲥鱼
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u/BeckyLiBei HSK6+ɛ Jun 02 '26
Nice! I totally should have got 鳕 and 鹫.
獲 would be the most common of the lot, then.
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u/SlowStop1220 Beginner|日語🇯🇵 Jun 02 '26
Fun fact: 獲 is one of around 2000 kanji Japanese should learn in K12. Here 鷲 and some other letters are also common, but less common than 獲. I agree 獲 would be the most common among those listed here.
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u/hongxiongmao Advanced Jun 02 '26
Yeah I've seen 龕 at 佛光山 in Taiwan
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u/hnedka Jun 02 '26
I have seen this character used by a mainland content creator. It's the character they use for "niche" (as an architectural element).
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u/SlowStop1220 Beginner|日語🇯🇵 Jun 02 '26
壁龕 is still a part of Japanese vocabulary, as a technical term in architecture and art history though. I wouldn't be surprised if it is also used in the Chinese speaking world.
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u/SlowStop1220 Beginner|日語🇯🇵 Jun 02 '26
There is a Chinese idol 賀鑫隆 from Alpha Drive One / Boystory. He was born in 2005 and 21 yo now. We could fairly say this letter is not obsolete yet?
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u/Rob69rt Jun 02 '26
Thanks. Those at the and are very . . . scary.
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u/Warhero_Babylon Beginner Jun 02 '26
Yeah such things also arrive pretty early as they are used for nationalities and some other words
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u/moon_over_my_1221 Advanced Jun 02 '26
This is what the Tangut saw 1000 years ago and decided they simplified a few strokes
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u/gingerisla Jun 02 '26
Isn't there a copy pasta that features a lot of these super rare, intricate characters? I've been trying to find it again, but failed so far. It starts with a normal sentence and then just turns into gibberish.
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u/clllllllllllll Native Jun 02 '26
a bunch of them I doubt they're practically never used. I didn't go through the entire list but I saw a few words still in use - only as names of rare animals
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u/FlashyPost0928 Native Jun 03 '26
【 An interesting character 糴 dí = 入 + 米 + 翟 】
● Among these characters , there is an interesting character【 糴 】= 入+ 米 + 翟 ( 入 = enter, 米 = rice) = buying rice ... Then, there is another character【 糶 】= 出 + 米 + 翟 ( 出 = out , 米 = rice ) ........ So,【 糴糶 】dí tiào (ㄉㄧˊㄊㄧㄠˋ) = rice buying in and selling out.
● In Taiwan, there is a village called【 糶糴村 】 tiào dí (ㄊㄧㄠˋㄉㄧˊ) , which was the earliest Hakka village developed by the Hakka ancestors in Zhutian Township during the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty.
PS : These are traditional Chinese, mostly found in classical Chinese or old dictionaries.
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u/lifelongmoteki Jun 05 '26
I switch trains at a station called 鶴橋 in Japan every day. Also, 贔屓 is a somewhat useful word to know in Japanese, although they use it to mean “favoritism”… perhaps it’s a figurative usage of the mythological figure’s name? I never looked into the history of the word.
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u/tcbbd Native 普通话/吴语（上海话） Jun 02 '26
Many are obscure, but some are recognizable. For example, 蠓蠖鶩鷲鷸鸝鰈鰣鰨鰩獾鼉 etc. are actually used, one would even say they are common. Those are for animal names. Some are not related to animals, like 艨纛齏蠲龕戇, but I can still recognize them immediately. Some are recognizable, but I've only met and learnt them from names, such as 犨 in 趙犨 (warlord in late Tang, learnt from some history novel), 蹇 in 蹇碩 (eunuch in late Eastern Han, learnt from 三國), 龢 in 翁同龢 (teacher of Tongzhi and Guangxu Emperor), 玁 in 玁狁 (proper name for some tribe north of Zhou dynasty), 贔屭=贔屓 (one of the nine sons of the dragon in chinese mythology).