This is a bit late to be back to this but I thought of it while playing with something else. I really like the jQuery chaining and the vertical-style notation makes it quite easy to read. stopPropagation() is normalized in jQuery and should work on any modern browser.

<script type="text/javascript"
 src="/your/path/to/jquery.js">
</script>

<script  type="text/javascript">
$(function(){

  $("*").click(function(evt){
     var lineage = $(this)
                    .parents()
                    .get()
                    .reverse()
                    .map(function(n){return n.nodeName.toLowerCase()})
                    .join(" > ");

     evt.stopPropagation();
     alert(lineage);
  });

});
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