more on "break a leg"

[Mark Mandel]

On Sun, Mar 15, 2009 at 11:03 AM, David Metevia <djmetevia at chartermi.net>wrote:

> Among my wife's Polish ancestors and current relatives, it is common for
> them to say - Don't vashinady (have no idea of the spelling) - this
> means don't mention something for the opposite will occur.  This
> happened yesterday - my mother-in-law commented on how stylish my wife's
> dollar store sunglasses looked and that they have lasted for a couple of
> years.....she vashinadied....they broke apart that afternoon.
>
> Regards,
> Dave
>

My late mother-in-law, a native Yiddish-speaker born in Poland, would say
"Don't give a getoik!" and mock-spit three times.

In USA English-speaking culture, we have the act of knocking on wood and/or
saying "Knock on wood" after mentioning something bad that could happen or
something good that has a chance of not happening. Not universal by any
means, but certainly widespread.

m a m

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