[Ads-l] Break bad (antedating, 1934)

Sat Jul 20 22:34:58 UTC 2024

Vince Gilligan, creator of "Breaking Bad," named the series after what he
thought was a common expression signifying, as he put it, "raising hell."
He soon learned, however, that not everyone was familiar with it and that
it seemed to be just a Southern thing.

Gilligan, born in 1967, spent his childhood in and around Richmond,
Virginia. I'm of about the same vintage and grew up in central North
Carolina, but I confess that I was unfamiliar with the expression when the
series began.

For "break bad," OED has "to become aggressive or angry; to start behaving
in an antisocial or lawless way" and cites a 1965 use as its earliest
example. Further, it notes "originally in African American usage." Jonathan
Green has the same, but he also includes an earlier usage (1911) with the
meaning "to have a mental breakdown" (
https://greensdictofslang.com/entry/d3p4lra#ma2yw7a). More on that far
below.

I was surprised to find dozens of pre-1965 examples of "broke bad" and
"break[s] bad" in small-city newspapers in Virginia, North Carolina,
Maryland, and the District of Columbia; see below. (That we can find
examples in print from the '30s suggests that the idiom had been
circulating orally for some time before.)

A few uses, all appearing in the same Greensboro newspaper in the late
'30s, were applied to instruments of violence and not perpetrators
themselves, but this was likely a single writer's quirk. An interesting use
in 1935 in the same newspaper recounts a shooting caused by, "witnesses
said, an 'argumentation broke bad',"
https://www.newspapers.com/article/news-and-record-argumentation-broke-bad/151627603/
.

Indeed, one can find much earlier (i.e., late 19th-c) examples of "break
bad" applied to things (e.g., baseball games and plays, the weather, luck,
a horse that falters or has a slow start, cards, nonspecific "things" and
"everything") with the meanings "go badly," "go south," "turn sour," and
"perform badly."

-- Bonnie

-----------------------------

EARLY USES APPLIED TO INDIVIDUALS (AND A MULE)

"BAD" NEGRO "BREAKS BAD"; John Boss, Alias "Ponto," Gets 28 Months for
Battle in Store. [Headline in Twin City Sentinel (Winston-Salem, North
Carolina), 26 November 1934, p. 13;
https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-sentinel-breaks-bad-breaking-bad/151694124/
.]

Thomas said the man came to the door and said he was going to "break bad"
and, without further ado, opened fire on his foot. ["Ankle Is Shattered by
Shot In His Foot," Greensboro (North Carolina) Daily News, 24 December
1934, p. 11;
https://www.newspapers.com/article/news-and-record-break-bad-122434/151694259/
.]

No, "Poor Boy" isn't a serious police problem; he simply oversteps the
bounds of propriety once in a while. Court oficials [sic] are surprised
that he is back this time for on his last trip before the bar of justice he
declared "I've promised the good Lord and a couple of other 'sponsible
gentlemens that I ain't goin' to break bad no mo'." ["Poor Boy" Is in Jug
Again," Journal and Sentinel [(Winston-Salem, North Carolina), 6 June 1937,
p. 2;
https://www.newspapers.com/article/winston-salem-journal-break-bad-breakin/151689542/
.]

Robert Williams, alias Break Bad, Negro; two cases of store-breaking. Heard
by the court and sentenced to two years in prison on each charge. ["News of
Courts," Norfolk (Virginia) Virginian-Pilot, 8 April 1939, p. 13;
https://www.genealogybank.com/doc/newspapers/image/v2%3A146D908D09F2E7FE%40GB3NEWS-16504FE52A7E1F3A%402429362-16502231B2F1CB93%4012-16502231B2F1CB93?clipid=empcumoadqmmyycegaypyshtamqxgnmv_ip-10-166-46-103_1721500885643
.]

Couch first "broke bad" Friday night after Patrolman Barrow, Claude Barker
and Sgt. Wayne Dalton raided a rooming house and took him and five
companions into custody ... While he was being led to jail, Couch broke
away from the officers but was finally subdued after a footrace down Broad
street. ["Jesse James Couch's Feet Let Him Down Second Time," Martinsville
(Virginia) Daily Bulletin, 9 August 1943, p. 7;
https://www.newspapers.com/article/martinsville-bulletin-broke-bad-breakin/151627055/
.]

Hedgecock had been plowing and riding the mule to the barn when the animal
"broke bad" with him. The mule started bucking without warning and hurled
the rider to the ground. ["Farmer Hurt When Thrown From Mule,"
Winston-Salem (North Carolina) Journal, 6 September 1944, p. 2;
https://www.newspapers.com/article/winston-salem-journal-broke-bad-breakin/151624361/
.]

A preliminary judgment day came in Henry County Trial Justice court this
morning for four defendants "who broke bad" over the weekend in a series of
crimes involving felonies ... ["Negro Ordered Held For Jury On Charges Of
Fatal Shooting," Martinsville (Virginia) Daily Bulletin, 22 August 1947, p.
1;
https://www.newspapers.com/article/martinsville-bulletin-broke-bad-breakin/151623536/
.]

Even fire department members broke bad on occasions and 119 were jailed in
Virginia during the past fiscal year, which was more than the 108 fishermen
and oystermen. [Kay Thompson, "All Kinds Of People Make Their Way Into
Jail," The Martinsville Bulletin, 4 October 1949, p. 4;
https://www.newspapers.com/article/martinsville-bulletin-broke-bad-breakin/151623398/
.]

Ever [sic] so often, in police parlance, "folks break bad." That means they
run afoul of the law in some degree or the other. [Kay Thompson,
"Martinsville Police Kept Busy In Unusual Day," Martinsville (Virginia)
Bulletin, 13 October 1949, p. 4;
https://www.newspapers.com/article/martinsville-bulletin-break-bad-breakin/151692144/
.]

Cordelia Green, Negro, of the 500 block of East South Street, "broke bad"
yesterday afternoon and ended up in Police Court this morning with jail
sentences totaling 14 months. ["Woman Sentenced To 14 Months For Numerous
Offenses," The Daily Progress (Charlottesville, Virginia), 27 September
1950, p. 7;
https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-daily-progress-broke-bad-breaking-b/151621926/
.]

The colored youth was arrested by Officer Norman Trump when the operators
of Snurr's grocery store on North Bentz street complained that Butler
"broke bad" in their business place and destroyed some merchandise and
fixtures. ["Youth 'Breaks Bad'," The News (Frederick, Maryland), 29
November 1950, p. 12;
https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-news-broke-bad-breaking-bad-1129/151621676/
.]

-----------------------------

EARLY USES APPLIED TO WEAPONS

Pistols "Broke bad" on Willis alley early Sunday morning, and as result,
Edgar Watson, negro, 222 North Gilmer street, is in L. Richardson hospital
suffering from three bullet wounds. Police are seeking his assailant.
["Local Negro Wounded 3 Times in Shooting," Greensboro (North Carolina)
Daily News, 5 June 1939, p. 11;
https://www.newspapers.com/article/news-and-record-broke-bad-sorta-653/151627537/
.]

Negroes living in the vicinity of 207 South Gilmer street had "the willies"
late Saturday night, according to police, when brickbats, a knife and a
shotgun began to "break bad." ["Negroes of Gilmer Street Get 'Willies';
James Seal Wounded By Shotgun and Knife -- Three Persons Face Charges,"
Greensboro Daily News, 4 December 1939, p. 10;
https://www.newspapers.com/article/news-and-record-break-bad-sorta-124/151689766/
.]

Guns "broke bad" literally last night on Ashe near McCulloch street,
according to police, who said a woman was the cause of it all. [Two
admirers of the woman shot at one another, and missed, and one resorted to
pistol-whipping the other when his bullets ran out. The gun broke. In
"Negroes Engage In Gunplay After Argument Over Woman," Greensboro Daily
News, 20 November 1940, p. 7;
https://www.newspapers.com/article/news-and-record-broke-bad-sorta-1120/151624487/
.]

Automobile, baseball bats and rocks "broke bad" in the section south of
Greensboro on Freeman Mill road last night with the result that Lee Connor,
of that section, was being held in the county jail on charges of
hit-and-run driving, drunken driving and assault with a deadly weapon while
Arthur Frazier, of the same community, was free under bond on a charge of
assault with a deadly weapon. ["Bats and Bricks Play Part in Disturbance,"
Greensboro Daily News, 10 August 1941, p. 8A;
https://www.newspapers.com/article/news-and-record-broke-bad-sorta-810/151624411/
.]

According to officers, an axe "broke bad" on both negroes, and last night
both stood charged with an affray with a deadly weapon -- the same ax.
["Retreat Street Residents Make Forward March," Greensboro Daily News, 12
February 1945, p. 4;
https://www.newspapers.com/article/news-and-record-broke-bad-breaking-bad/151623483/
.]

-----------------------------

"BREAK BAD" AS "HAVING A MENTAL BREAKDOWN"

Jonathan Green has a 1911 example of "break bad" in the sense of "having a
mental breakdown. (See link, above.)

Here's a similar find from 1919 with "broke bad" suggesting a physical
decline. No clue whether these have any kinship to "break bad" = "raising
hell."

[Horace] Traubel took a turn for the worse after the Bains left, which was
during the last week of August. [...] Horace broke bad with their
departure. It was apparent that life for him from then on hung by a slender
thread. [In David Karsner, _Horace Traubel; His Life and Work_. New York:
Edmont Arens, 1919; pp. 36-37;
https://www.google.com/books/edition/Horace_Traubel/lHMoAAAAYAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=%22broke+bad%22&pg=PA36
.]

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