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

[Chris Blankenship]

Growing up 30 minutes east of Nashville, you received strange looks if you
called this game anything other than "paper, rock, scissors."  Granted, this
was only between ten and fifteen years ago.

CB

On 9/13/06, James Callan <james.callan at comcast.net> wrote:
>
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       James Callan <james.callan at COMCAST.NET>
> Subject:      "Rock paper scissors" vs. "Rock scissors paper"
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> 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
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>

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