One may saddle break a horse, or break in a new pair of shoes, but in neither case is the "broken" thing rendered unusable; rather, it's MORE usable. How'd this usage of "break" develop?

Asa, I went to the online OED and found so many definitions of the verb break, from destroying, to breaking in lawn tennis, to breaking bread, to break your heart, to break one's duck (cricket), to better a record (Stock Exchange jargon), to disprove (an alibi), to impair (in health or strength). And that's only a few that I found interesting! I have no idea how all of these have evolved.

There are many words in English with multiple meanings. I seem to recall that, according to Guinness, the word "set" or "sett" has 156 meanings.

I always enjoy taking a break from work . . . and I used to love watching people break dance, although I could not do it well myself.

Re: break in the equino-brogan context.

Asa, it's fairly literal, as it turns out; in both cases you DO break things.

The horse's spirit is broken, its independence, so that it comes to tolerate a heavy human on its back and obey the commands of the reins and heels.

The shoes' stiffness and inflexibility is broken up; literally, connections between fibers in the leather are broken.

David

quote:

Originally posted by Froeschlein:
Re: equino-brogan.

Wow, that's some set of horse shoes! Ol' Dobbin be stylin'!