Talk:Break a leg

message: I have taken this article on as a part of the WikiProject Theatre. My plans to improve:
* This article has several non-professional comments and NPOV issues
* This article lacks several references and unverified facts
* This article needs Wikification
* This article needs stub sorting
Mkdwtalk 02:10, 5 November 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: WikiProject Theatre

message: If someone knows anything more about this theory as well as why it might be used to wish someone 'good luck' please expand that section. I have not removed it from my initial wikification of this article as it has the potiental to be elaborated and is an interesting fact. However, if this section is not expanded in due time, it will be removed. Mkdwtalk 02:10, 5 November 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Lincoln Theory

message: There's an online sitcom called Break A Leg its over at www.myspace.com/breakalegthesitcom
and
breakaleg.tv
It ran for a contest that FX had, and it just released a pilot episode. Is that notable enough to get a mention? There's other online things (I think they're called webisodes) that have gotten mention on wikipedia.
I can't figure out how to do the squiggly line to sign my name on this keyboard so just as a reference, my username is Geekening. The following unsigned comment was left by User:189.142.154.92
:The article Break a leg (sitcom) was deleted after an AFD for failing WP:SPEEDY on several accounts. You can find the full results here. The reference to it in this article was also deleted correspondingly. Mkdwtalk 11:24, 9 January 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Break A Leg the sitcom 

message: References below as well as 'The Complete Wonks of William Shakespeare' make reference to the origins of the traditions predating 1920. Mkdwtalk 21:52, 1 February 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: 1920

message: The term ‘break a leg’ is probably of a colloquial origin from the Mid Eng deriving from the Dutch ‘braeke’ with ‘allega’.
Braeke or ‘brake’ is ‘to learn through subjection’ as in ‘to relax’ or ‘tame’, as in the O Du. to ‘bridle’ or ‘bit’ (later applied in Eng C16th to torture on the rack). Hence ‘brake in a horse’.
Allega as seen in the term ‘allegory’ from the L, (as opposed to F alegre, ‘gaily’) ‘to speak otherwise than one seems to speak’ or tell a disguised story.
Hence ‘break a leg’ appears to be a phonetic foreshortening of ‘braeke allega’, presumably an exhortation to actors to be or perform what they have practiced doing in rehearsal, literally ‘be as you have learnt to feign’.
Brettcasben (talk) 02:20, 17 April 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: Sounds interesting, do you have any sources to back up this etymology? Mkdwtalk 21:07, 13 June 2008 (UTC)
thread_title: Semantic Derivation

message: Can we consider Gary Martin a reliable source? He claims on his bio page he is not specifically a scholar of phrases; neverthelesss he runs The phrase finder. Martin says he was a recording engineer in the 1970s, and a computer system worker at a university after that. In 1985, he performed some post-graduate studies of an unstated nature, followed by participation in a computational linguistics research project. At his 'break a leg' page, Martin fails to cite sources. To me, this Martin reference does not appear a solid source. Binksternet (talk) 02:48, 30 March 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: Well... frankly, none of the sources we have regarding this word are sound because no one really knows where the very commonly used term comes from. The whole thing is debated, and no one has written a book nor has really any empirical evidence as to the scope of this phrase through history. So what some editors have done, have pulled every piece of information whether it was from a tourism website, dictionary, foreign language, and .org website to give at least a full listing of every plausible explanation of where this word came from. As a result many other sources now cite this article and confirm that no one really knows for sure. Half the 'notable' websites I tried to find as sources in my usual repertoire quote Wikipedia -- including most of the news stories that talk about the phase. This is also the reason why we haven't picked the most heavily sourced etymology but listed numerous alternatives. Last month this article was visited 16,285 times and considering the article looked like this I've done my best to fill out it. So I'm not maliciously trying to mislead people or make up stories and publish them here. Break a leg in a way is somewhat myth like and the sources are and always will be shaky at best. What I could use is some help if anyone knows a better place that would have the solid references required, but no one has been interested or bothered to try for 3 years. Mkdwtalk 04:19, 30 March 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  Gary Martin at 'The phrase finder' 

message: The drama teacher in the High School that I attended back in the 1970's told us that "Break a leg" traditionally was said in half-jest by the understudy to the lead actor.  Of course, if the lead ever actually did break a leg, then the understudy would get the role for the rest of the show's run.  The teacher was retired from a career in theater in New York City, so I always assumed that he knew what he was talking about.
Something almost the same happens in the plot of the musical 42nd Street.
 71.199.121.113 (talk) 20:27, 13 September 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  Understudy 

message: Why is it suggested that the term originated in Elizabethan times in the Greek origin section? Should the chair-breaking and bowing headings be combined into "English origins"?  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 99.239.213.8 (talk) 21:10, 22 October 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  Greek origin 

message: I thought every guy knew what break a leg was. I means to get lucky with a women. I'm sure that you can figure out what the rest is without me explaining the physical process at the end  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 173.198.168.150 (talk) 02:29, 10 March 2012 (UTC)
thread_title:  Break a leg. 

message: Does the Ferber quote really belong here, or at least in the way it currently is included without any kind of explanation? The understudies are hoping the principals will break legs so they can go on in place of the injured actor - not saying good luck to them. –Roscelese (talk ⋅ contribs) 17:52, 8 August 2012 (UTC)
replies: text: Ferber does not say whether the understudies are sincere or not. I think the quote is exactly on topic, since the context is a dress rehearsal, "that grisly night" when "strange figures enter the dim auditorium" and grope around for their seats, in the process noticing various people in the audience who had a hand in the production of the play, and overhearing the understudies "politely" saying "break a leg" to the principal actors. This is exactly the scene many have experienced backstage and out in the house during a dress rehearsal. Ferber is colorful and suggestive but not explicit in her writing style; she allows the reader to impute a possibly less sincere motive to the understudies without making it plain. To my knowledge, nobody has analyzed Ferber's usage of the phrase, let alone dismissed it. I think we can take it in stride as part of the larger scene she paints. Binksternet (talk) 19:32, 8 August 2012 (UTC)
thread_title:  Ferber 

message: There is no such phrase as "baruch alechem" in Hebrew. The expression as cited appears to have been cobbled from two common Hebrew words which would not normally appear together. "Baruch" ("ברוך", the first word of most Jewish blessings, meaning "blessed" in the singular) is incompatible with "alechem" ("עליכם" = "upon you (plural)").  "Beracha aleichem" ("ברכה עליכם") is grammatical (unlike the suggested "baruch alechem") but not common or idiomatic.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by AviJacobson (talk • contribs) 18:46, 6 June 2014 (UTC)
thread_title:  Alleged Hebrew "Baruch alechem" 

message: My brother took a tour in a London theater (Drury Lane?). He tells me that the tour guide know what us foolish American's think the entomology is. She said that the actual origin is that for some performance in some theater (my brother didn't tell me which performance or theater) there were so many curtain calls that the leg (the side curtain) fell down or broke. So "Break a leg" actually means your performance should do so well that you have so many curtain calls that the "leg" breaks.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 173.88.225.206 (talk) 16:40, 18 October 2015 (UTC)
thread_title:  Tour guide's theory 

message: I just searched both the German and English versions, both available on Gutenberg Project, and neither one returns results for anything that I could identify  as referring to 'break a leg and/or neck' in English or the German equivalent of the saying (Hals-und-Bein bruch), so I seriously doubt this saying exists in this  work. I'd love to be proven wrong, especially as my German is rather limited. 
German text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/24572/24572-h/24572-h.htm
English translation:
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/41159/41159-h/41159-h.htm  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2600:100B:B116:C5CA:AA03:4E04:F5B3:B6F6 (talk) 18:27, 15 May 2016 (UTC)
thread_title:  alleged von Richthofen's autobiography reference?  

message: Aren't "Leg Line" and "Vaudeville Theory" essentially the same theory? They are both to do with "breaking" an imaginary line of visibility (or invisibility) and thus getting paid. Nuttyskin (talk) 14:28, 15 October 2017 (UTC)
thread_title:  Similarity between Leg Line and Vaudeville Theory 

message: The origins of the term were discussed on the British kids' TV show Blue Peter in 1972 when German-born tightrope walker Karl Wallenda, then aged 68, appeared. He said "break a leg" was an expression he'd heard throughout his life as a performer that implied it was better to do so that "break your neck" - as in the German/Yiddish expression. While this might not be authoritative, it does imply that "break a leg" is part of a longer expression that's been reduced over time. It's summarized in an article entitled "Break your leg - Break your neck" in the 1972 Blue Peter Book. -ProhibitOnions (T) 15:41, 27 March 2019 (UTC)
thread_title: Karl Wallenda on Blue Peter

message: Break a neck, break the pen (when writing).
See e.g. here
https://news.expats.cz/czech-language/zlom-vaz/ Zezen (talk) 16:05, 18 September 2020 (UTC)
thread_title:  Related taboo wishes: performative magic 

message: I've heard that it started being said before auditions as a play on words, wishing that the person would wind up in the cast.  Obviously I can't add that to the article without a reliable source, but has anyone else heard that?  - Lisa (talk - contribs) 17:43, 21 August 2021 (UTC)
replies: text: Have heard this, many claiming offhand it's the real/proper origin. While the extreme of that is definitely untrue given the numerous other explanations, I'm surprised there isn't a section in the article about the origin/spread of this interpretation as it seems quite popular. The reason I looked up the phrase at all was to investigate it, as it sounded like one of those things people say are the 'original' to sound clever but were actually retroactive additions (like "...and fools rarely differ" which from my research is nearly but not quite as old as "great minds think alike") that add nuance or 'logic' to a preexisting phrase. 97.113.215.10 (talk) 16:23, 14 April 2023 (UTC)
thread_title:  Cast 

message: Whats mean? 14.43.96.207 (talk) 04:49, 30 November 2021 (UTC)
thread_title:  Break your legs 

message: Wouldn't "Knock 'em dead." be an acceptable well-wishing before a performance without as much confusion? There's a lot of suggestions for foreign alternatives, but none in English (and the original saying one may be looking for an alternative to is in English). I think this is probably the best replacement candidate that's still well-wishing, but without the Murphy's Law aspects of saying "Good luck." — The Crisses (talk) 00:04, 7 August 2022 (UTC)
thread_title:  Alternatives 

message: According to Google Books N-gram viewer, the earlriest occurence of the phrase "break a leg" was in 1750. 
https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=break+a+leg&year_start=1800&year_end=2019&corpus=en-2019&smoothing=3
Is it possible to go from N-gram viewer to the actual book? 
BTW, does anybody have access to the Oxford English Dictionary? That would be an authoritative earliest reference.  Nbauman (talk) 21:55, 1 December 2023 (UTC)
thread_title:  Google N-gram viewer