抜 - Rare readings and how to search by reading

Japanese Language Kanji
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Hey all.

Because I like to waste my time looking up random things instead of actually studying what I should be focusing on, I came across the multiple alternate readings for 抜 that WaniKani actually features on their page for it (There’s no lack of non-jouyou alternate readings for all sorts of kanji and WK doesn’t generally bother to put them down as readings on the kanji pages, for understandable reasons). The Japanese reading is of course ぬ, and it lists バツ、ハツ、ハイ as on’yomi readings.

Normally what this means is that the multiple Chinese readings came from multiple separate imports of the Chinese character/reading throughout history. In this case ハツ is the 漢音 reading (from the 7th and 8th centuries during the Tang dynasty), and バツ is a 慣用音 reading, which means it’s not actually from Chinese, but rather a popularized mispronunciation. ハイ is… well it uhh it’s from… one sec let me look this up… apparently there’s no info on it anywhere I can find.

Multiple sites list ハイ as a reading, but either words using it don’t actually exist and all of these online dictionaries are just copying off each other assuming that someone else knows something they don’t, or it DOES exist and I just lack the skills to search for it. I’m willing to believe it’s the latter issue, but I need help. Jisho.org supposedly lets you search for all uses of a kanji with a specific reading, but if you actually try doing it it doesn’t work. Kanshudo lists this reading but then goes on to say the kanji in its database have 3 readings, none of which is ハイ. Wiktionary, which is one of the few resources that lists things like which type of on reading a kanji is, doesn’t list it as a reading at all. Which is part of why I’m suspicious.

Anyone with better vocab knowledge or google-fu able to help me out? And also, why would WaniKani bother listing such an obscure reading? It runs counter their usual M.O., especially since all of the vocab on the site uses the ぬ reading (yup, even バツ and ハツ aren’t used here). I’d put this post in the feedback subforum except that I’m more curious about the reading than bothered about WK’s choice to include it.

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I don’t see 抜 under the list of kanji with the reading はい in my copy of 広辞苑, which doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist, but it probably means you can be pretty sure you’re never going to encounter it in the course of studying Japanese.

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I tried looking up the KANJIDIC2 database to take a look (that’s where Jisho and likely Wanikani get their Kanji data), but I’m not great with software that’s older than I am and it just refused to open. As you mentioned, there are no Japanese websites that I could find that list ハイ as a reading, and I don’t think you’ll find any examples anywhere on the Japanese side of the internet. It’s probably just a database error, but I’m not really qualified enough to confirm or deny. The wiktionary page usually includes even readings and kanji outside the realm of the 漢検一級, so we’re talking serious levels of obscurity if it really is a reading.

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The kanjipedia website does not list it, and that’s the official dictionary site of the organization that runs Kanken, so if it’s not there, they will never ask about it.

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Yeah I usually use Kanjipedia to test if a kanji is on there. If it isn’t in the top few sites when searching, then it’s definitely not on the Kanken. There’s definitely some less obscure kanji that aren’t on the test (I even saw 躰 at karaoke recently), but I think it’s usually a pretty good sign of obscurity.

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It is on some other sites. mojinavi for example lists it as a reading, and nicovideo’s dictionary, which I missed previously, even gives more info on the reading (it’s used for a secondary definition apparently, but I still can’t find example vocabulary, unless it’s literally just 抜 read はい on its own). It’s also listed on jisho, which I thought pulls from KANJIDIC2 as you say.