편의점에서 김밥 사고 친구가 된 이야기

What does “가위바위보” mean in Korean?

가위바위보 is the Korean way to settle anything by chance, but the order and the third hand surprise English speakers. It breaks down as 가위 (scissors), 바위 (rock), and 보 (cloth) — not “rock-paper-scissors” but “scissors-rock-cloth.” The flat open hand isn’t paper at all: 보 comes from 보자기, a square wrapping cloth, which still beats rock by covering it and loses to scissors that cut it.

The everyday word for paper is 종이, so why 보? The game keeps the older 보자기 image — a cloth that can wrap a stone and be sliced by blades, working exactly like paper does. You chant the three words and throw on the last beat: 마이크가 보를 내고 (“Mike throws cloth”), 화분이가 가위를 내요 (“Hwabuni throws scissors”) — so scissors wins the last roll of gimbap. Korea also has a faster follow-up round, 묵찌빠 (muk-jji-ppa), built from the same three hands.