"Break bad": 2; "break nasty": 0

[Jonathan Lighter]

Yet someone here:
http://74.125.95.132/search?q=cache:hxWd8NwE1OYJ:www.urbandictionary.com/define.php%3Fterm%3DBreak%2520Nasty+%22break+nasty%22&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=3&gl=us

defined it (poorly, IMO) for UrbanDictionary.com in 2005.

Wilson would have done a smarter job of defining.

JL

On Fri, Jan 30, 2009 at 3:09 PM, Benjamin Zimmer <
bgzimmer at babel.ling.upenn.edu> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Benjamin Zimmer <bgzimmer at BABEL.LING.UPENN.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: "Break bad": 2; "break nasty": 0
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On Fri, Jan 30, 2009 at 12:23 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > In HDAS, there occurs the idiom, "break bad." However, "break nasty,"
> > a slightly older idiom with exactly the same meaning, which, IMO, is
> > way cooler, does *not* appear in HDAS. I've hassled poor Jon about
> > this to the extent that he has promised to take official note of
> > "break nasty," at some point. [Here, I should note that I was just
> > shucking and jiving with all of that mess, Jon. You can just ignore
> > all the crap that I've given you WRT "break nasty."] Recently, a movie
> > has been released with the title, Breaking Bad.
> >
> > So, "break bad" is in HDAS and in a movie title, whereas "break nasty"
> > has yet to appear in print, b n, 2; b b, 0.
>
> Wilson, I think you might be talking about the cable series "Breaking
> Bad" on AMC (Season 2 starts in March), about a chemistry teacher who
> starts up a meth lab to support his family. Here's how the star of the
> show, Bryan Cranston, explained the expression:
>
> ----
> http://blogs.amctv.com/breaking-bad/2008/03/live-chat-with.php
> The term "breaking bad" is a southern colloquialism and it means when
> someone who has taken a turn off the path of the straight and narrow,
> when they've gone wrong.
> ----
>
> --Ben Zimmer
>
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> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>

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