"Rock paper scissors" vs. "Rock scissors paper"

James Callan james.callan at COMCAST.NET
Wed Sep 13 17:33:47 UTC 2006


I realized the other day that, while I almost always call the game "rock scissors paper," it's far more popularly known as "rock paper scissors." (I know Google results aren't gospel, but 58,700 vs. 2,000,000 is a victory of several significant decimal places. Plus, the game's World Society uses Rock Paper Scissors.)

Is there any regional variation in which order people use for the 3 elements of this game, or is this just my own quirk?

Bonus question: is "roshambo" (450,000 ghits) a recent retitling of the game, or have people grown up calling it that for decades? I first heard the term a few years ago.

James Callan
neologasm.com

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