If you've ever been involved in the theater world, you've probably heard the phrase “break a leg." But why would anyone wish for an injury before stepping on stage? 

Theater folks are famously superstitious, and wishing someone “good luck” before a performance is believed to actually bring bad luck. To avoid jinxing a show, actors flipped the script and started wishing each other the exact opposite, hence the curious, counterintuitive phrase “break a leg.”

But why that phrase? Some say it comes from actors bowing or curtsying so deeply they’d metaphorically “break” the line of their legs. Others trace it back to ancient Greece, where audiences stomped their feet in applause, sometimes so wildly that it might actually cause an injury.