[Ads-l] break a leg

[Jonathan Lighter]

I recall seeing "break a leg above the knee" in British glossaries (most of
which copied from each other), but I'm quite sure I never saw it in an
independent American source.

JL

On Thu, Jul 16, 2020 at 11:58 PM Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:

> >The technique required to see the citations at Green’s Dictionary of
> > Slang (GDoS) is not obvious.
>
> Hear! Hear!
>
> On Thu, Jul 16, 2020 at 7:10 PM ADSGarson O'Toole <
> adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> > Andy Bach wrote:
> > > > The first citation contained "broke her leg above the knee".
> > >
> > > Makes one wonder what the development of this slang (idiom?) was.
> > > Well, me, anway.
> >
> > The technique required to see the citations at Green’s Dictionary of
> > Slang (GDoS) is not obvious. When you visit a webpage for an entry on
> > the GDoS website you will notice on the far right the phrase "Show
> > all" appears. Adjacent to "Show all" there is a grey symbol composed
> > of three short dashes and four longer dashes. Let us call this the
> > "Show all" symbol.
> >
> > Each webpage for an entry also displays one of more timelines. On the
> > right of each timeline there is a symbol that looks like the "Show
> > all" symbol. If you click on the "Show all" symbol adjacent to a time
> > line then a set of citations will be displayed.
> >
> > The following webpage shows 6 senses and 6 timelines. You can click on
> > each one of the six "Show all" symbols to see six collections of
> > citations.
> >
> > The Random House Historical Dictionary of American Slang (HDAS)
> > compiled by the sagacious slang expert J. E. Lighter has an entry for
> > "leg: break a leg" on page 419 of volume 2. There are three senses,
> > but I do not see "broke a leg above the knee". Maybe it appears
> > elsewhere.
> >
> > Garson
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > https://greensdictofslang.com/entry/o4zbvxa
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
>
>
> --
> -Wilson
> -----
> All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint to
> come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
> -Mark Twain
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>


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