![]() ![]() '" There is some anecdotal evidence from theatrical memoirs and personal letters as early as the 1920s. The earliest published example in writing specifically within a theatre context comes from American writer Edna Ferber's 1939 autobiography A Peculiar Treasure, in which she writes about the fascination in the theatre of "all the understudies sitting in the back row politely wishing the various principals would break a leg." American playwright Bernard Sobel's 1948 The Theatre Handbook and Digest of Plays describes theatrical superstitions: "before a performance actors never wish each other good luck, but say 'I hope you break a leg. ![]() The alternative theory that the term reflects an ironic superstition would date the term as originating around the same time. ![]() The English translation of the term is probably explained by German-speaking Jewish immigrants entering the American entertainment industry after the First World War. The aforementioned theory regarding Hals- und Beinbruch, a German saying via Yiddish origins, suggests that the term transferred from German aviation to German society at large and then, as early as the 1920s, into the American (or British and then American) theatre. Lynd did not attribute the phrase in any way to theatre people, but he was familiar with many of them and frequently mingled with actors backstage. In horse racing, Lynd asserted that to wish a man luck is considered unlucky and so "You should say something insulting such as, 'May you break your leg! '" Thus, the expression could reflect a now-forgotten superstition (perhaps a theatrical superstition, though Lynd's 1921 mention is non-theatrical) in which directly wishing a person "good luck" would be considered bad luck, therefore an alternative way of wishing luck was employed. The urbane Irish nationalist Robert Wilson Lynd published an article, "A Defence of Superstition", in the 1 October 1921 edition of the New Statesman, a British liberal political and cultural magazine, regarding the theatre as the second-most superstitious institution in England, after horse racing. The German-language term continues to mean "good luck" but is still not specific to the theatre. For example, Luftwaffe pilots are reported as using the phrase Hals- und Beinbruch to wish each other luck. Most commonly favored as a credible theory by etymologists and other scholars, the term was possibly a loan translation from the German phrase Hals- und Beinbruch, literally "neck and leg(bone) break", itself a loan translation from, and pun on, a Yiddish phrase (Yiddish: הצלחה און ברכה, romanized: hatsloche un broche, lit.'success and blessing', Hebrew: hatzlacha u-bracha), a wish for good luck, because of the Yiddish phrase's humorously similar pronunciation to the unrelated German phrase. Non-theatrical origins Yiddish-German pun theory Among professional dancers, the traditional saying is not "break a leg", but the French word " merde". Though the term likely originates in German, the English expression is first attributed in the 1930s or possibly 1920s, originally documented without specifically theatrical associations. An ironic or non-literal saying of uncertain origin (a dead metaphor), "break a leg" is commonly said to actors and musicians before they go on stage to perform or before an audition. " Break a leg" is a typical English idiom used in the context of theatre or other performing arts to wish a performer " good luck". For other uses, see Break a leg (disambiguation). ![]()
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