tH
# 78 APRIL 18 , 2016
character are many. However, by hoping it “Crepi”, it
dies, we visually defeat it,
fighting against a secular
tradition reiterated from
the Middle Ages.
The English expression
“break your leg”, usually
used in contexts such as
theatre, rehearsals, and
more generally big occasions is, as in the case of
“in bocca al lupo”, a wish
having a literal negative
connotation: “break-yourleg!” (auch!). The origin
of such saying is a bit nebulous. Some official data
state that the first person
to use it was Robert Wilson Lynd, a journalist of
the New Statesman. In
an edition of 1921, Lynd
is writing about horse
racing, stating: “[when
you wish good luck] you
should say something insulting, such as, ‘May you
break your leg!”. This idea
comes from the common
assumption that positive expressions, such as
“good luck”, “have a great…!”, or “hope you…!”
may invoke negative spirits.
German expression Hans
und beinbruch. Used in
aviation contexts, and meaning “happy landings!”
this saying is both popular in English and German.
However, its literal translation is: “break [all your]
bones/leg”, a warm sentiment of luck that, from the
world of war and aviation,
has presumably reached
colloquial language and
then theatre.
It seems finally from theatre that, the expression
“break your leg”, may
have drowned. At the end
of any play and performance, in Shakespeare’s
time any actor had to bow
and bend at the knee. The
stronger was the applause, the more emphatic
was the bowing; hence,
“to break your leg” wished the actor(s) to have
a good performance and
&V6V