breaking your duck

flogen

I know what this term means, to do something for the first time, but where does it come from?

The first time I heard it was in the context of a session - those who sang for the first time were told they had "broken their duck".

I heard it today on BBC News 24 in relation to Frankie Detori and his recent success in a certain race he had tried to win for years.

Any thoughts on its origin?

tbh

I seem to recall it was because the slang for 0 was a duck egg - maybe it originated from cricket? Out for a duck/breaking your duck. That's the reason zero in tennis is "Love" - from "L'Oeuf" (sorry probably spelled that wrong) - french for egg.

This is all vaguely familiar to me, I may well have heard the above down the pub, so don't quote me

tbh

found it - www.breakduck.com (i dunno either)

The complete phrase is "to break one's duck's egg."
The "duck's egg" comes from the game of cricket and is slang for the zero put next to a batsman's name on the scorecard if he fails to score in an inning.
So to "break one's duck" means to score after a period when it looked as if you wouldn't, or, more generally in other sports, to break a losing streak by winning.
One theory about the origin of "love" in tennis ("score of zero") is that the term derives from the French "l'oeuf," meaning "the egg."
A more exact parallel to "duck's egg" is found in the American coinage "goose egg," also meaning "zero" or "nothing" and dating back to the late 1880s. Oddly, unlike the British "duck's egg," "goose egg" has never developed a figure of speech for escaping the curse of not scoring. No one speaks of "breaking one's goose egg."
But "goose egg" gave rise to a metaphor for losing: "to lay an egg." In U.S., "lay an egg" became theater slang for producing a performance or show that flopped



I must say, I enjoy these threads a lot more when I try to guess or remember before I search


edit: I spelled it right. Fair play Mr. "Bouncer" Conlon, something stuck after all

flogen

Ah, good man tbh!

I would never have made a cricket connection, although I figured it was a sporting term.

The only thing I found on google was a definition too, not an origin.

Very interesting stuff, especially the theory that it connects to 'love' in Tennis - I'd always wondered where that came from and that's as good a suggestion as any!