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I was reading a sentence in a manga and the context used 滲みる to comment on
something soaking into fabric. (actually, it was specifically 「滲みとる」, is that
an ending I'm not aware of or an accent of た/て?) When I went to look into the
use of this kanji, I found that it was listed as an alternative version of
染みる. I'm still wrapping my head around why alternative kanji are used, but,
with this particular choice, is there any nuance to choosing 滲 over 染? Does it
imply any kind of different meaning or way of thinking?
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2021-03-15T17:26:12.433
84614
2021-03-15T20:40:00.903
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kanji manga kanji-choice
Alternative kanji forms, i.e., 「滲みる」 vs. 「染みる」。
Different kanji allow for nuance, but also can be used to give a literary
flare.

According to my 漢和中辞典, 滲みる describes _water_ deeply soaking into something.
染みる describes something slowly soaking through something else.

  * 滲みる: 滲は水がしみ込むこと
  * 染みる: 染は、じわじわと、しみとおること

The nuance here seems rather subtle, but given what you've said, if it's just
a matter of something soaking into the material and not all the way through,
then 滲みる makes a good deal amount of sense.

Digging through a couple other of my dictionaries, it seems that しみる can also
carry a sense of feeling a piercingly deep pain. And, superficially, it looks
like 滲 can also carry this nuance more so than 染. It's a bit as if 滲 more
easily expresses abstract notions of "soaking in" than does 染, which seems to
be used a bit more literally (if you're going to compare the two).
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2021-03-15T20:18:38.940
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2021-03-15T20:40:00.903
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