Rock-paper-scissors redux

Benjamin Barrett gogaku at IX.NETCOM.COM
Sat May 19 02:23:10 UTC 2007


Not a typo, no :)

I think kura (dark) is etymologically related to kuro, but here kuro is
correct.

The jury is out whether Jim Breen's first definition is derogatory or
not. I've gotten one response so far on it.

You definitely ask an interesting question!! What amazed me about this
game is when I saw an entire roomful of high school kids participate in
a single game simultaneously in Japan. BB

Wilson Gray wrote:
> Thanks for the extra info, Benjamin. And it's "kuro-" and not "kura-"?
> Just making sure that there's not a typo. My source for the word,
> _Ebony_ magazine, which has "kura-," is hardly definitive.
>
> I've located "janken-pon" in Google as an
> alternative name for "rock-paper-scissors." Presumably, that's the
> source of "jong-kim-po." How that came to be the only name for this
> game known to black kids in 1940's Saint Louis I have no idea.

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