I was thinking about the phrase ‘The pot calling the kettle black’. It comes from a time where cooking was done over open fires and cookware would become visibly ashy. (Fun fact: It first appears and was perhaps coined by Cervantes in Don Quixote!)
What are some other idioms that have lost their literal connection to time? What would be a good modern replacement?
“break a leg”
No, please don’t.
Isn’t the joke the if you break a leg you get in the “cast”?
No the joke is that it’s bad luck to wish good luck to an actor, so you wish the worst luck
Doesn’t that one come from the German idiom “Hals- und Beinbruch” (break your neck and legs) to wish someone good luck? Which in turns comes from a very butcherdly spoken jiddish phrase meaning (have success and be blessed).
Don’t remember where I heard it, but I thought the origin was related to actors and performers. It was a superstitious thing that if you wished someone good luck on stage you would jinx it so instead they did the opposite and wished for the worst. I could be very wrong!
And isn’t that somehow attached to a specific Shakespeare play, but then became universal?
Edit: maybe not. See comments below.
There’s a superstition among actors about speaking the word “Macbeth” outside of the play, but I don’t think telling people to “break a leg” is specifically linked with it. Two separate actor superstitions.
One thing is certain… Actors are weird.