I’ve a baseball fan for many years, and I’ve never heard of a pitch being said to “break bad.” (And while a pitch can break sideways or down, it can’t break high.)
Okay, fine on the “break high.” But otherwise, I don’t see your point.
The term doesn’t originate in sports, as you propose.
Your statement doesn’t make that argument. I said that the term “breaking” fir a change on trajectory originated in sports. That doesn’t require a showing that a pitch in baseball can “break bad.” Take “breaking” from sports and give it a metaphorical meaning that can now be modified by other “directions.” It’s not that complicated.
Even if it was used in physics before sports, I’d still guess that it became colloquial through sports.
Your post said “it”, which implied that it referred to the entire phrase rather than just “breaking.” And “breaking bad” doesn’t have any connection to baseball.
In any case, you haven’t provided any evidence that either “breaking” or “breaking bad” originated in sports. “Breaking away” for a change in direction may have preceded any use in baseball. As for pool/billiards, a “bad break” just means a break that doesn’t put any balls in a good position for a shot; it doesn’t imply any change in direction.
Of course I haven’t provided any evidence. But your objection doesn’t actually do anything to disturb my hypothesis. Yes, by “It” I meant the meaning of the term “break.” I thought it was fairly obvious. The “bad” part was further colloquial development, in my surmise.
As soon as I heard the title I knew exactly what they meant, never heard it before but it makes sense.
I had never heard the phrase before, but that was my immediate take on it, too. In the slang I’m familiar with, we often say someone is ‘shooting bad’ if they are having bad luck, or doing badly. I figured this was another way of saying that.
I never heard that phrase when I lived in Albuquerque or any of the rest of my considerable time spent in the Southwest. That was decades ago though, so I figured it was just some new slang that appeared since I left the US. But this is the first time I heard it was specifically Southwest.
[quote=“Gary “Wombat” Robson, post:3, topic:667109”]
Thanks, Clockwork, but do you know where it comes from? That still doesn’t make sense to me. Is it “break” as in “I was chasing the calf but it broke left just as I tried to rope it”?
[/QUOTE]
Okay, this seems to be the consensus of the thread, and it makes sense to me in that context.
Thanks for the help, all.
I thought ‘breaking bad’ referred to the practice of breaking up a sheet of crystalline meth after a successful cook into little bits for individual sale.
ABORT — ABORT — Oh god what have I done? I’ve created a zombie. So so Sorry guys and Mods. I should definately not drink, lurk and post at the same time. Worse than drunk dialing, ugh. Please continue on ABORTING FOR YOU LIVES!
Nobody is safe.
Unrelated, but I cringe when I hear someone say they “Felt badly” about a situation. What? That made your hands stop working?
I happen to have the direct quote handy:
**Jesse: **Man, some straight like you, giant stick up his ass, all of a sudden at age, what, 60, he’s just gonna break bad?
Walter: I’m 50.
Jesse: It’s weird is all, okay? It doesn’t compute. Listen, if you’ve gone crazy or something I mean, if you’ve gone crazy or depressed, I’m just saying that’s something I need to know about. Okay? I mean, that affects me.
Walter: I am awake.
**Jesse: **What???
First thing, you need to realize that meth dealers do not necessarily observe the highest standards of grammar.