Perhaps, like me, when carefully planned things slip sideways, you are inclined to mutter Them's the breaks. When that phrase popped to mind recently, I paused to consider: what kind of breaks are we talking about? Broken glass? Broken bones?
What do you think?
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Maybe you're smarter than I am and knew right away: this phrase comes to us courtesy of pool halls and billiard rooms. The Grammarist says the following:
This phrase comes from North America and has several variations. Them’s the breaks or that’s the breaks or them’s da breaks, with the first spelling being the most popular and the last being the least (and also most informal). ... The phrase means that sometimes the outcome to a situation isn’t what one wanted or expected, and most especially, that there isn’t much to be done about it so one might as well accept it and move on.
The phrase them’s the breaks comes from the game of pool or billiards. When the balls are racked up in formation one player ‘breaks’ or takes the first shot to try and send the balls around the table. The result of this break cannot be changed and the players must make do with what they are given.
There's more discussion over at The Phrase Finder that corroborates this, but no indication as to "when" this phrase first appeared. Digging around a bit more, I hit on this Reddit/etymology thread. The discussion started four years ago, and then picked up again recently with a reference to British prime minister Boris Johnson. Apparently he used this phrase in his resignation speech.
Anyhow, I checked Google Ngram (results below) to get an idea of when it started showing up in books. That's the breaks appears in the 1920s, and I did find it in The Best Short Stories of 1932. Them's the breaks shows up a while after that.
The phrase definitely has that "gangster-y" 1930s, '40s vibe, right?
Speaking of pool, and breaks, and so on, I can't let this Slang-o-rama post go without adding this great scene from the 1961 movie The Hustler with Paul Newman and Jackie Gleason. Enjoy!
"I gotta hunch, Fat Man.... This is my table, I own it."
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2 comments:
I admit that I loved to shoot pool. I beat my professor at OSU until she wouldn't let me play any more. Cliff and I had a pool table in our second house. Great sport!
It is a fun one, indeed! I was never any good at it, but definitely enjoyed it. And I have to ask: Who was the family "pool shark"? You or Cliff or.... ? :-)
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