じゃんけん
Definition from Wiktionary, a free dictionary
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[edit] Japanese
[edit] Etymology
Perhaps from Nagasaki dialect 両拳 *janken "two fists".
The name janken has been traced to 17th century Nagasaki. While ultimately of Chinese derivation, the etymology is obscure. The ken is clearly from 拳 ken, a family of fist games introduced from China; the question is the identity of the syllable jan. When playing the game, the count is synchronized by calling じゃんけんぽん jan-ken-pon or じゃんけんぽ jan-ken-po, and the identity of this po(n) is also obscure. The onomatopoeic Japanese terms for 'rock', 'scissors', 'paper' as used in this game are グー ~ ぐう gū, チョキ ~ ちょき choki, and パー ~ ぱあ pā, and are apparently unrelated to the call or the name of the game.
There are two popular explanations of jan. One is that janken is a corruption of 石拳 "rock ken" or "rock fists", since while the count is being made the hand is pumped in the rock shape (a fist). The more common (慣用音) Sino-Japanese reading of the character 石 is shaku, but the older 呉音 reading is jaku, and it has been suggested that the compound 石拳 jakken was corrupted to janken. However, neither this change in sound, nor why the old 呉音 reading should have been used is the first place, has been explained.
The other popular explanation is that janken derives from 両拳 "pair of fists". The Sino-Japanese reading of 両 is ryō (from ryau), and the modern Japanese approximation of Chinese 兩 liǎng is ryan, but it appears that in Nagasaki dialect the form may have been jan, as in the Nagasaki word じゃんこ janko "fist" and the compound 両個 jankō "two anglers catching a fish at the same time"; Nagasaki dialect frequently has ji and j- for standard Japanese ri and ry-. Also, in several areas of western Japan the game is called らんけん ranken, and in an area of Gumma Prefecture it is りゃんけんこ ryankenko.
The 6th edition of the Kōjirin dictionary (1983) attributes jankenpon to 両拳碰 "two fists coming out together / bumping into each other"; pon would be a modern Japanese reading of Chinese 碰 pèng ~ pòng.
[edit] Noun
じゃんけん (janken)
- The game of Rock Paper Scissors
[edit] Derived terms
- janken, jan-ken-pon; Tagalog: Jack en Poy; Brazilian Portuguese: joquempô
- The English synonym variously spelled roshambo, rochambeau, rowshambow, row-sham-bow, or roe-sham-boe, would appear to be a corruption of the Japanese call jan ken pon! Spelling it as the French surname Rochambeau is due to a folk etymology.
- The Spanish synonyms chinchampú and cachipún would also appear to be corruptions of jan-ken-pon.
The French name chifoumi is not cognate with janken, but with the Japanese count of hi-fu-mi "1-2-3" (abbreviated from ひと hito, ふた futa, み mi; Japanese hi [çi] is similar in sound to French chi [ʃi]).
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[edit] References
- Notes:
- ^ See Mandarin Wikipedia for a list of regional words called out for the count
