Where did the term "Break a leg" come from?
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There are several theories for the expression's origins. All are heavily debated. Like many expressions it is almost impossible to fully trace its origins unless there are some sort of identifying markers found in derived Latin expressions. The below are some of the most popular origins for the expression, but cannot be conclusively proven.\n\nTraditional Theory\n\nIn the U.K., the most common idea of origin for the expression comes from tradition. Historians know from the time of King James I and Shakespeare's King's Men that actors would on occasion receive tips on top of their salaries. Rather than receiving tips directly from the company or theatre, tipping was left to the audience. During the final bows or curtain call, audiences would throw money, usually coins, onto the stage depending on how well they enjoyed the performance. In some bad performances they would throw rotten vegetables, but in the good cases, money. Actors would then 'take a knee', effectively breaking their leg line, on stage and pick up the money. As a result when you wishs someone to 'break a leg' it refers to wishing them success in their performance so in end they would have to kneel down and collect a welcoming tip. Theatre evolved and the tradition of tipping changed. This tradition led to the tradition of throwing flowers on stage, as well as presenting flowers. The expression continued through theatre as it was still applicable and later became tradition.\n\nAntonym Theory\n\nBreaking one's leg is not a good thing to hope for - therefore by some superstition, if "good luck" causes bad luck, then the perceived bad luck of breaking one's leg causes good.\n\nBowing\n\nThis theory is thought to be an extension of the Traditional Theory. For the curtain call, when actors bow or curtsy, they place one foot behind the other and bend at the knee, 'breaking' the line of the leg. In theatre, pleased audiences may applaud in which time encore bows sometimes occur. On Broadway this is considered the highest compliment to an actor. In wishing someone to 'break a leg' you are ultimately wishing them to bow many times effectively causing them to 'break a leg'. A continuation of this theory is joke where you wish someone to bow too many times that they 'break a leg'.\n\nGreek Origin\n\nIn the time of Ancient Greece, people didn’t applaud. Instead, they stomped for their appreciation and if they stomped long enough, they would break a leg. Or, some would have it that the term originated during Elizabethan times when, instead of applause the audience would stomp their chairs – and if they liked it enough, the leg of the chair would break. [1]\n\n\nLincoln Theory\n\nPopular etymology derives the phrase from the 1865 assassination of Abraham Lincoln. John Wilkes Booth, the actor turned assassin, leapt to the stage of Ford's Theatre after the murder, breaking his leg in the process. The logical connection with good luck is none too clear, but such is folklore.
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it means stop kidding with me\nto pull one's leg. When you pull a person's leg you are spoofing or making fun of him, usually in a good-humored way.
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Work one's fingers to the bone (Also, work one's tail or butt off)\n\nMeans to exert oneself or labour very hard.\n\nThe expression comes from the image of working so hard that the skin and flesh off one's fingers comes off right to the bone. Dates from the mid-1800s. The less polite version dates from the first half of the 1900s.
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Some say that Break Dancing comes from the Martial Art known as Capoeira. Capoeira is an Afro-Brazilian Martial Art that is a game, a fight and a dance all in one.  It incorporates the martial art, instruments, and singing.\n\nMany of Break Dancing moves are in some fashion or another in Capoeira
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It wasn't Lincoln who coined this phrase. The first person to use the pharse was Aesop in his tale "The Four Oxen and the Lion" In this story the oxen would defend themselves against attacks from the lion by standing tail to tail in a circle so that the lion would meet only horns when attacking them. Eventually, the oxen got into a fight and separated. This left the lion a chance to atttack them all and eat them. The moral of the story was "united We stand, divided we fall" \n\nYes, abe Lincoln did use it later on and that perhaps is how it became popluar in America. Patrick henry also used this phrase in his last speech before his death in 1799. He was upset over the possible division of Virginia's house of Representatives.
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It has many meanings. \n1.  To get a few of your friends and attack someone you don't like or are mad at and procede to beat them up.\n2.  To have sex with someone as in "jump" their bones.\n3.  To cut in front of someone in line.\n4.  To have a bunch of your fellow gang members attack a friend who wants to be a part of your gang.  To "jump" them in.  Usually it is a set number of gang members who beat up on one guy for a set amount of time.  If he or she survives the beating, they are accepted as part of the gang.
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Not quite sure about this but I think the phrase may have been coined by William Burroughs. Originally referring to someone with a heroin addiction. Not sure about the monkey image either but I'd guess that if you had a monkey jump on you, it would dig its claws into your back and be quite difficult to remove (like an addiction)...of course this is all a random guess.
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I recall it originated from the time of the Egyptians where mummies would roll over.  This frightened the tomb keepers and that is why they were sealed and many false passages were created.  The term refers to the dead returning to haunt those who would continue to bring harm to loved ones or family.
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One possible origin for the phrase is an incident said to have taken place during the siege of the Alamo in 1836, when William Barret Travis drew a line in the sand with his sword and urged those willing to stay and defend the fort to step across it. Unfortunately, this heroic story seems to have been invented by a 19th century promoter long after the fall of the Alamo. But the myth itself probably greatly popularized the phrase, so it does count as an origin of sorts even if the incident itself was apocryphal. \n\nAnother possible origin dates back to the time of the Roman Empire. It seems that one of the Macedonian kings, a bit short of cash, decided to invade Egypt, then a Roman protectorate. His army was met at the border by a lone Roman senator named Popillius Laenas, who ordered the king to withdraw. The king began to stall for time, so Popillius Laenas drew a circle in the sand around the king and demanded that the king agree to withdraw his army before he stepped out of the circle. The king, apparently impressed by the senator's nerve (or, more likely, by the Roman Empire in general), withdrew. Incidentally, not only is this account verified by contemporary historians, but it also may be the only known instance of a line drawn in the sand actually stopping someone.
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Does your family fight over the wishbone from the Thanksgiving turkey? Known as a "lucky break" the tradition of tugging on either end of a fowl's bone to win the larger piece and its accompanying "wish" dates back to the Etruscans of 322 B.C. The Romans brought the tradition with them when they conquered England and the English colonists carried the tradition on to America
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Social Climbing Admin(istrative) B**tard.\na Strike breaker often directly bought in by management recruited from outside the area usually, and employed specifically to break the strike.  By the way acronym given above is pure speculation the simple English word scab was probably scurrilous enough on it's own.\nIt has been around for at least 2 centuries.
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This expression originated in the United States in about 1900. The phrase may have some Latin connection. When a Roman boy was in trouble, he cried ‘patrue mi Patruissime’ (‘Uncle my best of uncles’).
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Mill Reef fractured - didn't *break* (like all the way through) his leg. He was euthanized due to a heart condition in 1986. \nEspecially in horses there's a big difference in a break and a fracture.
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It's a contraction of 'Association Football.' The term originated in England in 1863, because there were already other forms of football at the time. Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand and South Africa also call it 'soccer' or 'association football.' Italy calls it 'calcio.'
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This originated in the early 1980s. It is generally regarded as an American expression. This item from the New York newspaper the Syracuse Herald-American, Feb. 1982, which is the earliest version in print that I can find, puts that in some doubt. It's in a piece by Jerry Buck, writing out of Los Angeles, about actress Lauren Tewes
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the shank is the part of the leg between the knee and the ankle.\n\n'longshanks' is a rather old-fashioned way of teasing someone for being tall (in more modern english tall people are called 'lofty').
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Where did u hear this from? (place, person)