“Break a leg” is a weird phrase. But why do we say it and where does it come from?
Well, we can’t say for certain, but it is most likely one of several oddities that we can trace back to the superstitious world of theater.
“Break a leg” was first said to actors before they went on stage. This became more widely used in performance arts and sports, and can now be used ahead of any big, nerve-racking occasion.
Where exactly it started in theater’s history is less clear. It may date all the way back to the ancient Greeks, who would stomp their feet instead of clapping. There are also theories linking the phrase to the Elizabethan term for bowing – “to break the leg” – or, more sinisterly, from understudies wishing actors would literally break a leg so they could take their place.
However, there is no direct evidence to support any of these origins, and the phrase is more likely to have originated in the United States in the early 20th century. By this point, theaters were already filled with all sorts of supernatural forces and misfortune, and actors, in turn, were superstitious. This led to the belief that parting well-wishes such as “good luck” and “all the best” would actually inflict the opposite result. The logical move, therefore, was to send each other onto stage with “break a leg”, and a successful performance would ensue. It caught on.
It joins other well-established theater superstitions including never saying ‘Macbeth’, that a bad dress rehearsal means the show will have a good run, that whistling is bad luck, and that you can never wear blue on stage.
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While theater is the most likely origin, there are other, unsubstantiated theories about “break a leg” being traced back to different languages. In German, the saying “Hals-und Beinbruch” means “neck and leg break”. It is a pun derived from the Hebrew blessing “hatzlakha u-brakha,” meaning “success and blessing.”
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