In the wrong circles, the Rock Paper Scissors game is known by another name called “roshambo”, “rochambeau” or “ro sham bo”. This question is quite complex like why paper beats rock.
So, Why do people call Rock Paper Scissors Roshambo? In the United States, the term is commonly used on the West Coast, especially in northern California. According to some legends of the game, the term “Roshambo” dates back to the Comte de Rochambeau, a French nobleman who fought against the British during the Revolutionary War (and gets a shoutout in a hit musical Hamilton). His name was used as a codeword at the battle of Yorktown, where he was a commander of the French troops.
However, “there’s no historical proof tracing the name back the Revolutionary Times. The first ever known use of “roshambo” as a synonym for the Rock Paper Scissors game was found in a book from 1936 called The Handbook for Recreation Leaders, published in Oakland, California. It was spelled “ro-sham-beau” in the book, leading to even more confusion.
At the World Rock Paper Scissors Association, we find no evidence that the Comte de Rochambeau had no involvement with the game of Rock Paper Scissors. Looking at the History of Rock Paper Scissors, versions of the game originated in China as far back as 1600 before spreading to Japan, where it was called “Jon Ken Pon.” The Japanese game eventually spread to Europe in the Early 20th Century and made it to the United States by the 1930s.
Other Stories for the History of Roshambo
One idea tossed around for the origin of Roshambo is because the SanFransico area has long been home to a large population of the East Asian Immigrants. It’s likely that Bay Area kids early 1930s on who were playing Rock Paper Scissors or “Jon Ken Pon” decided to Americanize the name. While there is little historical evidence to trace the change, perhaps with the help of the Revolutionary War knowledge they picked up in history class and transforming it into a word with similar cadence “roshambo”.
Who is Jean Baptiste Rochambeau?
Jean Baptiste was none other than the French General who was sent to command an army in support of George Washington during the American Revolution. He was an incredible military general that King Louis XVI made him a knight of the Saint Esprit and appointed him governor of Picardy and Artois. You can find out more about the History of Jean Baptiste Rochambeau by Clicking Here or clicking the image to the left. Why the game of Rock Paper Scissors became associated with the “Count of Rochambeau” is still a bit of a mystery, but it certainly calls into question the means by which Washington secured Cornwallis’s surrender in Yorktown. Was it settled over a game of Rock Paper Scissors?
We are also trying to figure out what is the most popular variation of the name. Is it Roshambo, Rochambo, Rochambeau or Ro Sham Bo? It’s all too confusing to us and we will stick to Rock Paper Scissors.
What about rock paper scissors lizard Spock?
If you would like information about Rock Paper Scissors Lizard Spock check out https://www.wrpsa.com/rock-paper-scissors-lizard-spock/. We still prefer the classic game of Rock Paper Scissors.
It has absolutely nothing to do with Rochambeau. Japanese immigrant children in Oakland California brought with them Jan Ken Pon. in the early 20th century. Since the Native English speakers had no knowledge of Japanese and they’re hearing something shouted out, they aren’t going to get it right. A good example of this is the word Buckaroo coming from Spanish vaquero. When you look at the two you can’t imagine them being the same word, but someone saying vaquero in a Mexican accent, sounding like “ba-kay-ro” it’s not too hard to see how it worked it’s way to buckaroo.
I know a bit about Japanese and can smooth the Jan Ken Pon over a little. First the “n” in Japanese is interchangeable with an “m” pronunciation. So we can turn all the final ‘n’s into ‘m’ and be linguistically consistent. jam kem pom. But the Japanese often will drop the end letters in pronuncation. I have read and confirmed to this day they don’t always say “pon” but “po” or other variants. They also drop consonants if they are repetitious, Japanese likes to flow consonent-vowel-consonent-vowel, etc. Esp. when being yelled by a school child. So the “n/m followed immediately by a K is harsh and could easily be rectified by dropping the n/m. Becoming Ja-kem-po.
Now admittedly this is more of a stretch, but like the n/m relationship (at the end of words only, “ma” and “na” are obviously different, but “on” or “om” are pretty much the same) there is a link linguistically from k to g, t to d and h, b, and p. This is indicated in their language such that for example 川 – river is sometimes “kawa” and sometimes “gawa” on it’s own it’s kawa, 川, but if it follows another consonant, it changes as a second consonent and becomes gawa. This happens a lot in Japanese words where if the consonent k is already used, its second might become g. If t is used, d might follow, h might be followed by b or p rather than repeating the consonant. 品川 Is “Kanagawa” the “gawa” in Kanagawa is exactly the same word as kawa in the stand alone or 川沿い “Kawazoi” (riverside), but again if it comes second, it becomes g instead like 山川 “yamagawa” meaning mountain river. Also sometimes they are just utterly interchangable. For example the name of Japan or Japanese people can be expressed as “Nihon – Nihonjin” or “Nippon – Nipponjin” the “ho” and “po” are entirely interchangable and mean exactly the same thing.
All this to say, ‘po’ in ja-kem-po can reasonably become ‘bo’. So now we have ja-kem-bo strictly following Japanese pronunciation conventions.
jakembo is a lot closer to roshambo. If we fudge the vowels, roshambo – roshembo – rashembo – jakembo Almost there. A lot closer than vaquero to buckaroo.
Uhoh