Transcript of “Into the Mouth of the Wolf!”
Hello, you have A Way with Words.
Hello, my name is Michelle Solomon.
I’m calling you from Pembroke Pines, Florida.
Well, welcome to the show.
What can we do for you, Michelle?
Well, thank you so much. And I was just wondering, why do people say break a leg to performers instead of simply saying good luck? And also, what is the origin of that phrase?
Do you work in theater?
No, I don’t. I don’t.
Okay, but it’s just something you know from TV and movies or some other point of your life?
Well, I love theaters, and I go all the time, and I wind up telling the performers, break a leg, and I had no idea why I was telling them to break their leg. And the ones that are not accustomed to that phrase gave me, they look at me like, oh, why did she tell me to break my leg?
Oh, it’s such a theatrical tradition. I wonder, I’m surprised that somebody didn’t know about it.
Were they dancers?
I think it’s strictly Americans. I think this is really strictly for Americans. I go to a lot of the West Indian shows. I love the Caribbean performers. And they are not too familiar with that phrase.
There we go. That makes a lot of sense. To be honest with you, I’m not sure if it’s only an American phrase. I’m just assuming because it’s not a common thing to say to a Caribbean performer.
Yeah, it’s not exclusively American, although I think it might have become more common here. Saying break a leg when somebody is about to perform instead of saying good luck connects to a larger folklore tradition of trying to avoid the devil or bad spirits who might hear your wishes for good luck and somehow try to spoil the action, to ruin the endeavor. And so there are a lot of folklore traditions like this throughout all of the cultures of the world, where you just don’t say good luck to someone because a bad entity may try to ruin it.
And it’s not just English. There’s the German Haus und Beinbruch, which means break your neck and leg. And there’s the Italian bocca al lupo, which means into the mouth of the wolf, to which the correct response isn’t thank you. It’s crepi al lupo, which means let the wolf die. So there’s a bunch of these.
Wow, that is interesting.
Yeah, Martha asked about dancers because there’s a tradition there, Martha.
Yes, yes, toy, toy, toy, especially in opera. People will say that to each other.
So as Grant was saying, it’s basically you’re doing the opposite of what you really want in case some evil spirit overhears you and tries to boil your plans.
I’m surprised the people that dance folklore dances, that’s the dances. Those are the performers that I go to all the time. I’m really surprised they had no idea that it was actually pertaining to luck because they dance to spirits and things like that.
Well, you know, Michelle, there’s fieldwork there for you if you want to do it. I think there might be some traditions that they simply haven’t shared. Perhaps they have their own ways of saying good luck that aren’t any of these.
I will find out. And if I do find out, I’ll be happy to share it with you.
Yeah, that’s delightful. That’d be delightful.
You did ask about the origin of the expression. And I want to say there are a lot of false stories about the origin of break a leg. It doesn’t come from John Wilkes Booth who shot Abraham Lincoln in the Ford’s Theater and then broke his leg when he jumped to the stage. And it does not come from the great French actress Sarah Bernhardt who had her leg amputated in 1915. It is really none of the fanciful stories you hear about break a leg are probably true. So we don’t really know where it comes from except from this folklore tradition about saying the opposite of what you really want.
Why, thank you so much for bringing clarity to this statement. Now when I say it, I’ll know exactly what I’m saying. I appreciate you taking my call and letting me know about breaking a leg.
What about radio personalities like yourself? Can I tell you to break a leg or not?
Well, what you say to us is, don’t forget to turn on your mic. And the second one is, don’t wear your mic to the bathroom. It’s been done before. Let’s just put it that way. But thanks for thinking of us.
You take care of yourself, all right?
Thank you. Your show is great. I enjoy it. And I will continue to share with my friends and family.
Thank you. All right. Thank you, Michelle. Thank you. Bye-bye.
Bocca Lupo. Into the mouth of the wolf. Love it.
