Etymology

jan ken po

Today it means: rock paper scissors Full definition →

Hawaiian Creole jan ken po ← Japanese じゃんけんぽん
Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

The story

  1. Japanese · derived fromじゃんけん
  2. Japanese · derived fromじゃんけんぽん
  3. Hawaiian Creole · borrowed fromjan ken po
  4. English todayjan ken po

Borrowed from Hawaiian Creole jan ken po, from Japanese じゃんけんぽん (jankenpon), from Japanese じゃんけん (janken). Doublet of janken.

Words from the same roots

Japaneseじゃんけん all →

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.