You’d be hard-pressed to find anyone who hasn’t heard the expression break a leg although they may not always recognize it as a wish of good luck to another. But it is. The idiom is a theatrical superstition where performers believe that wishing a person “good luck” is considered bad luck, and so they wish them bad luck instead by way of broken bones.
INTERESTING SIDE NOTE: The industry standard when it comes to stages is for the stage to be sloped one inch per foot of stage space. Data shows that theatrical productions with the maximum stage slope account for the highest percentage of injuries from sprains to fractures among performers.
The Sarasota Herald-Tribune published a news article by Mary H. Williams in the column “Charlotte Life” on January 23, 1992 where the idiom introduced the writer’s comments about Jan Brandes of Port Charlotte and her debut with the Players of Sarasota.
“Break a leg!” is a traditional parting phrase for performers preparing to go on stage. Of course, this isn’t as brutal as it sounds.
It’s considered bad luck to wish an actor good luck, and somehow this phrase has taken hold in the thespian world.
Irish nationalist Robert Wilson Lynd published an article titled, “A Defence of Superstition” in the October 1, 1921 edition of the British liberal political and cultural magazine, New Statesman. In his opinion, the theatre was the second-most superstitious institution in England with horse racing being the top most superstitious. It was Lynd’s assertion that one should wish participants something insulting such as ‘May you break a leg!‘ as wishing a participant luck was considered, according to superstition, bad luck.
Four years after this article was published, American romance and women’s fiction author, Faith Baldwin (October 1, 1893 – March 18, 1978) used it in her novel “Thresholds” published in 1925 as proven by this excerpt:
Rupert said, smiling a little: “Isn’t that a Teutonic expression employed before the chase?”
She laughed, lazily, over the lifted glass. “Not exactly. I believe that would be bad luck or something. You say, ‘I hope you break a leg’ — or your neck — or some such hope of calamity.”
In German, the saying is “Hals und Beinbruch” or break your neck and leg. It’s been reported in numerous historical documents that German Air Force pilots used the phrase during the First World War.
In French, one says “Merde!” which translates into “Sh*t!” or, for those who are too shy to use such a coarse wish, “cinq lettres” or “five letters” … one for each letter in the French word they don’t want to say.
In Spanish, the phrase is “mucha mierda” or “lots of sh*t.”
Some believe it’s a misheard version of the Yiddish phrase “Baruch aleichem” which means “bless you” and when said aloud, it sounds similar to break a leg (bah rak a lay kem) to those who don’t speak Yiddish.
But back in 1684, according to “A Dictionary of Slang and Colloquial English” to break a leg was to seduce someone. According to John S. Farmer and W.E. Henley who were responsible for creating this seven-volume work published in 1905, their tome states that this is what was meant by break a leg way back when. Their dictionary was a result of researching multiple dictionaries that dated back as far as 1440 and included, but weren’t limited to, the works of John Palsgrave (1530), John Withals (1553), Peter Levins (1570), Cladius Hollyband (1593), John Bullokar (1616), Thomas Blount (1656), Richard Head (1674), E.B. Gent (1696), Nathan Bailey (1737), Francis Gross (1785), John Jamieson (1808), John R. Bartlett (1848), Charles Pascoe (1881), and Albert Barrere (1887).
Going with the definition of break a leg from 1684, what better luck could you wish a performer headed on stage than that he should seduce the audience that awaited him?
However, the meaning of the idiom as we understand it today, dates back to 1921 regardless of how well it applied to the theatre in 1684. So the next time you find yourself in front of an audience, don’t be shy: Break a leg!
Historically Speaking 