This is a phrase that seems to be counterintuitive. Certainly, you don't want someone to actually break their leg onstage. Where did such a saying come into existence? The phrase was first recorded in print in the early 1900s. Eric Partridge, in his Dictionary of Catchphrases, suggests ...
Break The Ice Largely believed to derive from ships used to break up ice as explorers venturedinto frigid waters, the phrase "break the ice" has been traced back to the 16th and 17th centuries. Figuratively, "breaking the ice" was part ofSir Thomas North'stranslation of Pluta...