more on "break a leg"

[Barbara Need]

My mother learned Hals- und Beinbruch in Switzerland 1947-8 among
skiers.

Barbara

Barbara Need
Chicago

On 15 Mar 2009, at 5:45 PM, Douglas G. Wilson wrote:

> It has been speculated that "Hals- und Beinbruch" = "Good luck" is
> based
> on a Yiddish good-luck expression.
>
>> From earlier discussion on this list:
>
> http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0212a&L=ads-l&P=8865
>
> Here is the German-from-Yiddish etymological conjecture in a modern
> book:
>
> http://preview.tinyurl.com/c4evcy
>
> Seems likely enough to me.
>
> As for why "Hals- und Beinbruch" instead of some other mondegreen, I
> speculate that "Hals- und Beinbruch" was already an established
> collocation, meaning [figuratively] "disaster" or "disastrous misstep"
> (although the meaning is irrelevant). On quick Google Books search I
> find such an expression a few times from the early 19th century, the
> "good-luck" interjection only from the late 19th (but my German is
> even
> worse than my English, so some scholar might like to check this).
>
> Now we have "Break a leg!" from 1925 or so and German exact-equivalent
> (I think) from 1908 suggesting the English interjection was simply a
> literal translation of the German one, so the specific superstitions
> of
> actors (German or US) may not be germane since the basic meaning is in
> fact "Good luck" if it's from "Hals- und Beinbruch".
>
> Now one may ask whether "Hals- und Beinbruch" > "Beinbruch" > "Brechen
> Sie ein Bein" or so is simply a matter of shortening or whether it
> involves a deliberate weakening ("Besser ein Bein brechen, als den
> Hals").

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