tH
# 78 APRIL 18 , 2016
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ITALIAN LANGUAGE:
Break your leg and
In bocca al lupo. Luck and its
(odd) origins
By Giosuè Prezioso
A friend of yours is going
to hold an important seminar. You: “break your
leg!”; a group of actors,
stressed out, is going to
start its play in less than
a couple of minutes. You:
“break your leg!”. Before a
given important appointment, event, or occasion,
we usually wish what in
fact we would never hope
to happen: “to break a
leg”. In English, as well as
in Italian – but also in German, Polish, French - and
many other languages,
many common expressions wishing good luck
actually have an opposite
meaning.
sed through negative
expressions? In order to
explain this phenomenon,
let’s see how the English
“break your leg”, and the
Italian “In bocca al lupo”
(literally: [hope you go/
end] in the mouth of the
wolf) firstly originated.
According to the Accademia della Crusca – the
highest institute of Italian Studies – “in bocca al
lupo” was an expression
commonly used by hunters. Before starting the
hunting season, “in bocca
al lupo” became a warm
greeting wishing safety
and protection, as the direct response to it fairly
But why is such an affectio- was: “Crepi!”, meaning
nate wish actually expres- “may [the wolf] die!”. The-
refore, this expression was
meant to protect the hunter during hunting, but
also to wish an abundant
loot: “the wolf dies, and I,
the hunter, go back home
safe, with a lot of meat!”.
However, the imagine of
the wolf as a scary dangerous animal draws from a
more extensive tradition.
Back in the Middle Ages,
most of the towns, villages,
and counties were located
in the middle of woods,
where wolves and wild
animals usually scared the
whole population. There
are stories in which wolves
torture, kill, and even rape
animals and human beings; there are some others,
in which wolves become
men, women, and even
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