# Language mavens: "knockin' em dead" around the world

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/language-mavens-knockin-em-dead-around-the-world/227888>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [February 6, 2004, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/language-mavens-knockin-em-dead-around-the-world/227888 "2004-02-06T19:52:14Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\
**Post date:** [February 6, 2004, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/language-mavens-knockin-em-dead-around-the-world/227888/1 "2004-02-06T19:52:14Z")

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Background: I’m in a play opening tonight. I’m going to give cards (and Pez; who doesn’t like Pez?) to everybody in the cast.

I was going to just write “Kick Ass” on all the cards, as an exhortation to success, but as I’m thinking about it, I’d like to do something better. (And no, “break a leg” doesn’t cut it.)

So I’m hoping the multilingual community on the SDMB can provide me with a variety of sayings and aphorisms that are more or less synonymous with an encouragement to “kick ass” or “knock 'em dead.” I’d be especially appreciative if I could get the phrase, its language, and the translation (both literal and subjective if it’s particularly obscure and colloquial).

Thanks in advance! 🙂

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**Author:** ![johncole](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5f9b8f/32.png) [@johncole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johncole)\
**Post date:** [February 7, 2004, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/language-mavens-knockin-em-dead-around-the-world/227888/2 "2004-02-07T02:18:06Z")

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> [@Cervaise](#):
>
> So I’m hoping the multilingual community on the SDMB can provide me with a variety of sayings and aphorisms that are more or less synonymous with an encouragement to “kick ass” or “knock 'em dead.” I’d be especially appreciative if I could get the phrase, its language, and the translation (both literal and subjective if it’s particularly obscure and colloquial).

Not so much a synonym, more one of the possible derivations from [here](http://www.quinion.com/words/qa/qa-bre1.htm)

> [@](#):
>
> …the French say Merde! (a term that has been borrowed by dancers in the English and American theatre) and Germans say **Hals- und Beinbruch** , “neck and leg break”, as ways of wishing someone good luck without any fear of supernatural retaliation. It is sometimes said that the German expression is actually a corruption of a Hebrew blessing **hatzlakha u-brakha** , “success and blessing”, which may have been borrowed via Yiddish.