more on "break a leg"

[Victor]

A couple of minor points
1) I am not convinced that the anti-good-luck-wishing superstition is or
has been peculiar to the acting subculture--when everyone is convinced
of something as a fact when there is little evidence of it, it's time to
reconsider its status as an urban legend
2) "jinx" is a matter of coincidence that results in or is indicative of
bad luck, and has little to do with wishing-good-luck superstition; jinx
is also a fairly recent expression--which may or may not also be true of
the underlying superstition. More importantly, the term "jinx" is
useless since it was in use as a personal name at least as late as 1911.



Dave Wilton wrote:
> You may be looking at culture too broadly, at least in terms of the English
> expression.
>
> The English phrase is almost exclusively associated with the theater, a
> profession that has many similar superstitions (e.g., it is bad luck to
> refer to "Macbeth" by its name, "the Scottish play" is preferred). The fact
> that there is no general fear of wishing someone good luck does not militate
> against such a superstition in a specific subculture. I don't know the
> contexts in which the similar phrases in other languages are used, so I
> can't speak to them.
>
> Then again, there is also the rich tradition of the jinx, of which "break a
> leg" is merely one example. So I wouldn't grant that there is no general
> superstition against wishing someone good luck.
>

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org