One of my friends is a musician and he is performing at his first concert tomorrow! This morning I saw him for a coffee and said:<br /><br />Looking at me with confusion and fear he repeated:<br /><ul><li><b>Break a leg</b>? Why on earth would I want that</li></ul><br />You may be as confused as he was, so let's explore this slang phrase...<br />To clarify I am not wishing him bad luck! The opposite actually. This idiom "<b>to break a leg</b>" has in fact positive connotations, strange as it seems. So where does this strange idiom come from and when do we use it?<br /><br />Now there are many claimed reasons for the existence of this phrase, usually involving connotations with the theatre.<br /><br />"Break a leg" earliest written evidence can be found in Bernard Sobel's 1948 Theatre Handbook in which Sobel explains that actors never said "Good luck," only "I hope you break a leg."<br /><br />It has been suggested that wishing someone to "break a leg" dates back as far as Ancient Greek Theatre. After watching ancient greek audiences would stomp their feet to express their praise for a play, rather like how we clap and applaud now. By wishing an actor to "break a leg", they hoped that the show would be such a hit that a member of the audience would stomp so hard that they literally may break their own leg, showing that the play was a total success!<br /><br />However this is only one theory, our second stems from ancient superstition, that when you want something to be a success you must wish for the opposite.<br /><br />For an actor on opening night it could be argued that the worst thing to happen would be to break a leg, so wishing for it may in fact insure it is avoided!<br /><br />Nowadays we can use this term not just concerning luck in the theatre but in general, for example:<br /><ul><li>Hope you break a leg at your job interview!</li></ul><br />or<br /><ul><li>Break a leg on the English test today!</li></ul><br />So when do you next need to break a leg? A job interview? An English exam? Let us know!<br /><br />That's the end of our episode so remember to tune in for our next episode to see what new slang we have in store for you! <br /><br />You can find us on <a href="https://theslangpodcast.com" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">our website</a> and from there you can see our transcript and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and many more apps.<br /><br />Or head over to our facebook page <a href="https://facebook.com/theslangpodcast" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">https://facebook.com/theslangpodcast</a> or instagram for updates and more slang!<br /><br />Become a supporter of this podcast: <a href="https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-slang-podcast-learn-british-english-now--4117941/support?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rss">https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-slang-podcast-learn-british-english-now--4117941/support</a>.