A small lizard with adhesive toe pads that allow it to climb smooth surfaces, found mainly in warm climates.
From Malay 'gekok' or Arabic 'waqq,' an imitative word based on the gecko's distinctive clicking call. The word entered European languages through Dutch traders in Southeast Asia.
Gecko feet are so incredibly sticky that scientists studied them to create synthetic adhesive—each gecko foot has millions of hair-like structures that work at the molecular level, making them nature's nanotechnology before humans invented nanotechnology!
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