this post was submitted on 04 Dec 2025
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Science Memes

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[–] wizzor@sopuli.xyz 102 points 6 days ago (18 children)

Pika is a real animal?

Gen 1 pokemon really are just funny colored real animals.

[–] CidVicious@sh.itjust.works 26 points 6 days ago (9 children)

Pika is pronounced "pie-kuh" generally. Pikachu comes from pika pika (japanese onomatopoeia for "sparking/sparkling" usually with the connotation of clean) + chuu (sound a mouse makes/squeak).

[–] SorryQuick@lemmy.ca 10 points 6 days ago (8 children)

Actually it comes from pika(-tto), the onomatopoeia for a lightning strike.

[–] CidVicious@sh.itjust.works 1 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

I think these are the same root? Pika pika is used to mean clean but it's onomatopoeia for sparkling. That double word onomatopoeia construction in japanese doesn't really have a direct analogue in English I don't think.

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