Actors need to feel confident as they go on stage, so why do we hope they'll break a leg?

There are loads of phrases we use on a daily basis which, when you stop to think about them, make absolutely no sense at all.

Got a hangover? Hair of the dog will help. Still drunk? Maybe you're three sheets to the wind. And why on earth should you be as mad as a hatter?

Etymology (that's the origin of words and phrases to you and me) can reveal some fascinating things.

In ye olden times, for example, a bite off a dog was thought to be cleansed of germs if some of the hair from the pooch got rubbed into the wound, making the thing that caused you to feel bad your cure as well. At sea during a storm, three sails towards the wind would keep the boat afloat, but at the expense of sailor's stomachs who would stagger around as if plastered. And the felt for hats in 18th and 19th century hat factories was treated with mercury which, when exposed to for a long time, would give the workers dementia...

But of all of the phrases we use with curious origins, suggesting that a performer 'breaks a leg' as they mount the stage is surely one of the oddest.

There are lots of suggestions as to the origin. An actor actually broke a leg and it comes from that... Nah - who? When? Where?. It's got something to do with bowing and your knees... Mmmm, seems plausible, but wouldn't it be your back you'd break? 

Well, you may not know that a 'leg' is part of a theatre curtain. They are tall narrow drapes designed to shield the wings on either side of the stage form the audience. Usually, a set of two legs, one on each side of the stage, and one border, would form a complete masking "frame" around the stage.  

So it could be, and it seems likely, that the origin of the phrase, and why we use it to offer good luck, is that we hope our performer friends are so good, and get so much applause, that the number of curtain calls is so great that the strain on the ropes of the curtain breaks the leg. 

Good eh?

So there, now you know. Unless you're just a nasty bitter understudy and you actually do want to them to break their ankles...

See the 2014 Manchester Theatre Award Nominations here.