They’re used for celebrating the opening of a new school facility, creating blankets and pillows for a homeless shelter, and giving haircuts.

As an implement, they’re also used in school craft projects

They also are a partial inspiration for a game that may have originated in China during the Han dynasty of 206 B.C. to  220 A.D. and is now played worldwide, according to the World Rock Paper Scissors Association.

The history of scissors stretches back even further than that game is supposed to have begun. Scissors that were connected at one end were probably invented in 1500 B.C. in Egypt and the Romans invented scissors with crossed blades around 100 A.D., according to a 1998 article in the trade journal Industrial Heating.

To see an image of shears the Metropolitan Museum of Art has that may be from Trabzon and the second century A.D., click here.

Cast steel scissors that are closer to those of today started being mass-produced by Robert Hinchliffe in England in 1761, according to an Encylopaedia Brittanica article. In 1800, Thomas Wilkinson in England patented scissors that are bent at the shank, which were easier to use because they could be stabilized on a cutting surface, according to a blog post by scissors company Ciselier. Double-edged shears were invented in 1911, according to a Scientific American article published in The Chicago Defender. In 1972, Fiskars began mass-producing left-handed ergonomic scissors, according to Finnish Design Shop. John Mayer invented ambidextrous scissors that were patented in 1976. The Online Etymology Dictionary states that the phrase “Oh scissors!” was used to express impatience or disgust in the 1800s. The word “scissors” is rooted in the Latin “caedere,” which means “to cut.”

“Few inventors have deserved a more lasting memorial than the author of scissors; but, like many other old worthies, he had none,” a Historical Notes on Homeley Subjects entry from a mechanic’s diary said in an 1870 issue of American Artisan journal. “Numerous fine devices have been given up for better ones, but it may be a question whether, in principle or construction, scissors as now made can be improved or superseded. A smart old lady thought they will only go out of the world when the last human family leaves it. They do work so varied, and with such rapidity and precision, that any attempts to displace them would certainly be frowned down by the most expert of milliners and tailors.”

The first scissors learning milestones, even before children hold the tool, include tearing paper in play, interest in scissors. and understanding the purpose of scissors, according to occupational therapist Colleen Beck. Children have to have bilateral coordination, hand strength and hand-eye coordination. She has tips and activities suggestions here.