Recently I've been trying to understand the difference in nuance between the words 楽しい, 愉{たの}しい, and 娯{たの}しい, but I'm still confused after reading a few different explanations on chiebukuro and other sites, some of which conflicted with each other.
Firstly, the two main differences between these apart from nuance are:
- 楽{たの}しい is a 常用 reading for 楽, while 愉{たの}しい, and 娯{たの}しい are non-常用 readings for 愉 and 娯.
- 楽しい is almost always used, 愉しい is used once in a while, and 娯しい is used rarely.
Now, for the nuances, I've read and understood (possibly mistakenly) that:
- [Source 1]: 楽しい is “fun”, 愉しい is “fun without feeling even an inch of discomfort/displeasure/with no reserves”.
- [Source 2]: 楽しい is “fun”, 愉しい has a nuance of “fun which you enjoy with your whole body (?)”, and 娯しい is “fun, but funnier than 楽しい”. The other answer says 愉しい is “fun” with a niche nuance, as in enjoying a classical car collection.
(It also mentions 悦{たの}しい (which seems to be pretty much never used), claiming that it carries a connotation of “pathological” fun)
- [Source 3]: 楽しい is “fun”, and 愉しい (from what I understand) is more subjective (e.g. one finds something to be fun), and seems to have a connection to Buddhism.
- Finally, I also found someone claim that 愉しい is “fun, but funnier than 楽しい”, similarly to 娯しい in the second bullet point above.
So... What really is the difference in nuance between these?
Also, is this nuance understood and respected by most Japanese people in writing, e.g. novels? Or does the typical native Japanese reader perhaps feel a bit like "愉しい is funnier than 楽しい, though I don't know what 娯しい means"?