Puchi Puchi

[Benjamin Barrett]

A friend visiting from Japan just brought me my first Mugen Puchi Puchi,
a virtual bubble wrap toy. Puchi puchi is the Japanese onomatopoeia for
the sound that bubble wrap makes when it pops. Mugen means infinite, as
in you can keep puchi puchi-ing forever.

It doesn't have the same feel as real bubble wrap to me, a little too
hard, but I'm being told that Mugen Puchi Puchi are the hit particularly
among non-Japanese in Japan.

I can't imagine "puchi puchi" being adopted as an English onomatopoeia,
but it will be interesting to see what happens with this word.

Images at:
http://zedomax.com/blog/tag/puchi/
http://www.geekstuff4u.com/product_info.php?currency=EUR&manufacturers_id=&products_id=575

Benjamin Barrett
a cyberbreath for language life
livinglanguages.wordpress.com

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org