Here's something you might be interested in.
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed
Big Screen — Movie commentary
Blurt — Music's inside track
Booze News — San Diego spirits
Classical Music — Immortal beauty
Classifieds — Free and easy
Cover Stories — Front-page features
Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes
Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts
Feast! — Food & drink reviews
Feature Stories — Local news & stories
Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore
From the Archives — Spotlight on the past
Golden Dreams — Talk of the town
The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it
Letters — Our inbox
Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites
Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans
Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists
Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news
News Ticker — News & politics
Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated
Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna
Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated
Poetry — The old and the new
Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers
Reading — The hunt for intellectuals
Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails
San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds
SD on the QT — Almost factual news
Sheep and Goats — Places of worship
Special Issues — The best of
Street Style — San Diego streets have style
Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves
Theater — On stage in San Diego this week
Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative
Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work
Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego
Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads
Your Week — Daily event picks
Break a Leg, and Other Good Wishes
Hello there, oh great one:
Where does the phrase "break a leg" come from? One source says it may have come from the whole incident with Abraham Lincoln and John Wilkes Booth. The same source says that that is probably not true. What gives?
-- Alison, the net
This is the answer, but don’t believe it. It's a old know-it-all trick that makes you look like you've done your research but doesn't put you in the line of fire if somebody out there has better info. We see it all the time here at Matthew Alice's Fact-o-Rama (LLC). The word nerds are particularly fond of that dodge.
The natural history of a common expression takes some predictable turns. First, it springs up in conversation. Years later it is common enough to appear in print. Then it spreads to the general public and becomes a cliché. The general public, eager to fill the collective brain pan with something other than helium or lithium or whatever fills the average skull, will look at the expression and ask "Why?" Why would anyone say "break a leg"?
The urge to answer his own question is irresistible to Average Joe. He applies what passes for logic to the quandary and comes up with the Lincoln-Booth story, since he vaguely remembers from history class that Booth broke his leg after shooting the prez and leaping onto the stage to make his escape. That's the only broken-leg/theater link he can think of-- proof enough that he is indeed a sage and has answered his own question. The explanation makes it into print, we slugs buy it, so it passes for fact. The word nerds even have a name for this process: a folk etymology, a goofy explanation fabricated by us folks after the fact.
Other stories from free-lance thinkers are even more preposterous. How about this one. The pole that holds the stage curtain is called a leg. May you wow the audience and have so many curtain calls that the leg breaks from rising and falling so often. Makes the Lincoln story look half sane.
Actual language researchers offer this explanation. The term came into use with the Yiddish theater as a more or less direct translation of the existing German expression Hals und Bienbruch. In highly superstitious worlds like the theater, it's common to reverse good wishes-- to say something negative so you don't tempt the gods. Culturally, this kind of thinking is universal, not just a German or theater thing. The German expression might have originated with air force pilots, as an alternative to "don't crash and die." That's the best the word nerds can do for you. Don't blame me, blame them. That's my dodge.
The phrase "break a leg" comes from the understudy [in the theater who hopes the star will] "break a leg" so that they may have his/her chance to go on in their place. Simple?
-- Mike Flinn, dot com land
Simple as folk, Mike. Wrong as folk, too. Another widely believed folk etymology. Sorry.
According to my high school history teacher, it's true that [some cultures] wish bad luck on someone in order for them to have good luck…. The Germans even have a word for wishing bad things on someone else, so that you may feel good (schadenfreude). Of course they would come up with the concept of wishing you bad luck with the intent of fooling the karma gods into providing you good luck instead. A friend of mine (of German descent, no less) often wishes people after a party or whatever, "Drive fast. Take chances." It's his way of doing whatever he can to direct good fortune on his guests by reversing whatever bad juju he may personally bring into the equation by wishing them good luck.
-- Paul Willemssen, Bay Park
And perhaps his way of raising the highway death rate among people who don’t get the good luck-bad luck switch.
Here's something you might be interested in.
Break a Leg, and Other Good Wishes
Break a Leg, and Other Good Wishes
Hello there, oh great one:
Where does the phrase "break a leg" come from? One source says it may have come from the whole incident with Abraham Lincoln and John Wilkes Booth. The same source says that that is probably not true. What gives?
-- Alison, the net
This is the answer, but don’t believe it. It's a old know-it-all trick that makes you look like you've done your research but doesn't put you in the line of fire if somebody out there has better info. We see it all the time here at Matthew Alice's Fact-o-Rama (LLC). The word nerds are particularly fond of that dodge.
The natural history of a common expression takes some predictable turns. First, it springs up in conversation. Years later it is common enough to appear in print. Then it spreads to the general public and becomes a cliché. The general public, eager to fill the collective brain pan with something other than helium or lithium or whatever fills the average skull, will look at the expression and ask "Why?" Why would anyone say "break a leg"?
The urge to answer his own question is irresistible to Average Joe. He applies what passes for logic to the quandary and comes up with the Lincoln-Booth story, since he vaguely remembers from history class that Booth broke his leg after shooting the prez and leaping onto the stage to make his escape. That's the only broken-leg/theater link he can think of-- proof enough that he is indeed a sage and has answered his own question. The explanation makes it into print, we slugs buy it, so it passes for fact. The word nerds even have a name for this process: a folk etymology, a goofy explanation fabricated by us folks after the fact.
Other stories from free-lance thinkers are even more preposterous. How about this one. The pole that holds the stage curtain is called a leg. May you wow the audience and have so many curtain calls that the leg breaks from rising and falling so often. Makes the Lincoln story look half sane.
Actual language researchers offer this explanation. The term came into use with the Yiddish theater as a more or less direct translation of the existing German expression Hals und Bienbruch. In highly superstitious worlds like the theater, it's common to reverse good wishes-- to say something negative so you don't tempt the gods. Culturally, this kind of thinking is universal, not just a German or theater thing. The German expression might have originated with air force pilots, as an alternative to "don't crash and die." That's the best the word nerds can do for you. Don't blame me, blame them. That's my dodge.
The phrase "break a leg" comes from the understudy [in the theater who hopes the star will] "break a leg" so that they may have his/her chance to go on in their place. Simple?
-- Mike Flinn, dot com land
Simple as folk, Mike. Wrong as folk, too. Another widely believed folk etymology. Sorry.
According to my high school history teacher, it's true that [some cultures] wish bad luck on someone in order for them to have good luck…. The Germans even have a word for wishing bad things on someone else, so that you may feel good (schadenfreude). Of course they would come up with the concept of wishing you bad luck with the intent of fooling the karma gods into providing you good luck instead. A friend of mine (of German descent, no less) often wishes people after a party or whatever, "Drive fast. Take chances." It's his way of doing whatever he can to direct good fortune on his guests by reversing whatever bad juju he may personally bring into the equation by wishing them good luck.
-- Paul Willemssen, Bay Park
And perhaps his way of raising the highway death rate among people who don’t get the good luck-bad luck switch.
Comments