Break a leg
The phrase broken neck is probably a corruption of an originally Yiddish expression and means good luck as a wish to someone who is facing an exam or a difficult task.
The Yiddish form hatslokhe un brokhe of the expression used as a wish for good luck and a blessing (especially for business deals) with the meaning “success and blessing” derives from hazlacha uwracha ( IPA : [hatslaːxaː uvraːxaː], Hebrew הצלחה וברכה) from Hebrew from - from lehazliach ( IPA : [lehats'liaːx]) "to succeed" and lewarech ( IPA : [levaː'rex]) "to bless". German-speaking listeners spoiled these words as a broken neck and leg .
Another explanation could be traced back to an idea that the powers of fate tend to reverse good wishes. So you already turn your own wish in order to outsmart fate. At the end of the 19th century, hunters in the vicinity of Berlin were wished luck in this sense, while the explicit wish was good luck! was viewed as unlucky.
The English idiom break a leg possibly comes from the translation of the German "Hals- und Beinbruch". In German, the synonymous jargon terms broken spar and ribs (aviation) as well as head and belly shot (military) and broken mast and sheet (shipping) are parallel formations or second-order corruptions.
The Italian equivalent of the expression is in bocca al lupo . In Romansh , the phrase, semantically the same as Italian, is in bocca d'luf . In Russian one says ni pucha, ni pera (ни пуха, ни пера) - neither down nor feathers . All of these idioms relate to hunting.
Individual evidence
- ^ Knaur: Dictionary, 1985
- ↑ Why do you want a neck or leg broken? .
- ↑ The Brockhaus in Text and Image Edition 2002; © 2002 Bibliographisches Institut & FA Brockhaus AG.
- ^ Krause, E .: Superstitious cures and other superstitions in Berlin . In: Journal of Ethnology . tape 15 , 1893, pp. 78-93 .
- ↑ I wish you had a broken neck and leg . September 21, 2010. Retrieved October 12, 2014.
