Break a leg is what actors say to wish each other good luck. Break a leg, they said break a leg, whisper break a leg.
Saying good luck is held to be unlucky in the theatre, so the wish is inverted. The origin is genuinely unknown, and the likeliest account traces it to a Yiddish blessing borrowed through German.
1phrasebreak a legWhat actors say to wish each other good luck.
“Before the curtain went up, the director told the nervous cast to break a leg.”
break a leg is a wish.
Of uncertain origin; the likeliest account traces it to a Yiddish blessing meaning success and blessing, borrowed through German.
Hebrew
הַצְלָחָה וּבְרָכָה — success and blessing
Yiddish
הצלחה און ברכה — success and blessing
English, today
break a leg
Built from
unknown; many unproven and widely debated theories exist. One of the most plausible is that it comes from Yiddish הצלחה און ברכה (“success and blessing”) through the heavy Ashkenazi Jewish influence in the American theater, via the misinterpretation in German - as Hals- und Beinbruch (“neck and leg fracture”). The Yiddish phrase itself comes from Hebrew הַצְלָחָה וּבְרָכָה (“success and blessing”). Another possible origin was to wish opposite luck on the performer so as not to jinx the statement.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA
Practised in Idioms