break a leg
- 1An expression used to wish someone good luck and a strong showing before a performance, especially on stage, or before a comparable challenge.
Like wishing a traveler a safe journey just as they set out.
The stage manager grinned and told the nervous understudy to break a leg.
Break a leg at your piano recital. You've practiced for months.
Note
A backstage good-luck wish whose origin nobody has settled. One of the likelier stories runs through Yiddish hatslokhe un brokhe, "success and blessing," carried into the American theater and misread as the German Hals- und Beinbruch, a wish for a broken neck and leg. It works as a fixed formula: say it just before someone goes on, or report it (told her to break a leg). Toi, toi, toi does the same job.
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Origin
The origin is unknown, with many debated theories. One of the most plausible is that it comes from the Yiddish phrase הצלחה און ברכה (hatslokhe un brokhe, "success and blessing") (itself from Hebrew) through the strong Ashkenazi Jewish influence in American theater, possibly misheard as the German Hals- und Beinbruch ("neck and leg fracture"). Another possible explanation is that it wishes the opposite of luck on a performer so as not to jinx them.