[Ads-l] "them's the breaks"

[Ben Zimmer]

On Thu, Jul 7, 2022 at 1:50 PM Shapiro, Fred <fred.shapiro at yale.edu> wrote:

> I am probably just missing something, but it seems to me that the OED is
> omitting an expression larger than "them's the breaks."  I don't see in any
> of the OED senses that the word "break" can refer to a stroke of fortune
> that could be bad.  Think of the expression "I got a bad break."
>

Yes, the OED's "break" entry is rather incomplete, since sense 18 ("a
chance, an opportunity; a piece of good luck") does not seem to cover
"breaks" of the unfortunate variety. Other dictionary definitions are more
expansive, such as Merriam-Webster's "a stroke of luck and especially of
good luck" ("a series of bad breaks" is given as an example) and AHD's "an
often sudden piece of luck, especially good luck."

"Bad break of luck" is attested in the databases back to 1885 at least. The
cite below is in the context of billiards, which suggests this usage of
"break" may be an extension of the "opening shot" sense in cue sports.

---
https://www.newspapers.com/clip/105153916/bad-break-of-luck/
Boston Globe, Mar. 18, 1885, p. 6, col. 2
At one time, toward the close of the first 100 billiards, Gilman led by
nearly 20 points, but a bad break of luck was destined to be his, while
O'Neil rolled off three double-figure runs.
---

--bgz



> From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of Ben
> Zimmer <bgzimmer at GMAIL.COM>
> Sent: Thursday, July 7, 2022 11:27 AM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Subject: "them's the breaks"
>
> From Boris Johnson's resignation speech -- a candidate for Quotation of the
> Year?
>
> “I want people to know how sad I am to be giving up the best job in the
> world. But them’s the breaks.”
>
> I'm not finding any coverage for "them's the breaks" in OED, HDAS, or GDoS.
> Here's the earliest I've found so far:
>
> ---
> https://archive.org/details/variety93-1928-11/page/n109/mode/1up?q=breaks
> Variety, Nov. 14, 1928, p. 46, col. 1 ("New York Chatter")
> "Mike," a stage hand with "Scandals," had saved $225. He bet it on Al
> Smith. Members of the company laid $1,200 against his pile. Them's the
> breaks.
> ---
>
>

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