"Break yourself" or "Brace yourself"?

[JuanTabonia]

I was at Circuit City buying an xbox game and the workers were philosophizing about whether the popular phrase is actually "Break yourself" or "Brace yourself".
They were saying brace but I said I thought it was break. I'm not exactly sure of the meaning/origin behind it though.

EDIT: I meant the phrase in the colloquial/slang context.

 

[MacBaine]

It's 'brace yourself'. You are 'bracing', not 'breaking'

 

[Zim Hosein]

Brace yourself

Is the proper term

 

[Pr0Hawk]

Havent you seen that movie with the wayans brothers. I think it was Dont be a menace to society while drinking juice in da hood.

"BREAKS YASELF!!!!"

 

[spanky]

brace. breaking urself would really suck.

 

[TomC25]

If they mean "get ready for the information I am gonna tell you" then it is Brace Yourself.

If they mean "yo, fool, I'm talkin' to you" then it is Break Yo' Self.

 

[Zenmervolt]

People are actually voting for "break yourself"? I knew this would happen once we started letting things like "could care less" and "irregardless" slide.

ZV

 

[Shaftatplanetquake]

break yo self.


I don't know why everyone is voting for brace...

its clearly break..

Taken a step further by Ludacris? with "BREAK YO NECK N*GGA!"

 

[Brutuskend]

Originally posted by: MacBaine
It's 'brace yourself'. You are 'bracing', not 'breaking'

 

[Zenmervolt]

Originally posted by: Shaftatplanetquake
break yo self.


I don't know why everyone is voting for brace...

its clearly break..

Taken a step further by Ludacris? with "BREAK YO NECK N*GGA!"

I suppose that it would be too much to hope that this was sarcasm?

ZV

 

[HombrePequeno]

Well in Don't Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood it's "Break yo self!" so I gonna go with that.

 

[Zenmervolt]

From Merriam Webster:

Main Entry: 1brace
Pronunciation: 'brAs
Function: verb
Inflected Form(s): braced; brac·ing
Etymology: Middle English, from Middle French bracier to embrace, from brace
Date: 14th century
transitive senses
1 archaic : to fasten tightly : BIND
2 a : to prepare for use by making taut b : PREPARE, STEEL <brace yourself for the shock> c : INVIGORATE, FRESHEN

This should settle it.

 

[HombrePequeno]

Originally posted by: Zenmervolt
From Merriam Webster:

Main Entry: 1brace
Pronunciation: 'brAs
Function: verb
Inflected Form(s): braced; brac·ing
Etymology: Middle English, from Middle French bracier to embrace, from brace
Date: 14th century
transitive senses
1 archaic : to fasten tightly : BIND
2 a : to prepare for use by making taut b : PREPARE, STEEL <brace yourself for the shock> c : INVIGORATE, FRESHEN

This should settle it.

I'm still gonna go for the Don't Be a Menace version.

 

[Ns1]

when a middle aged white man says it it's "brace yourself"

when a minority or popular white rappers say it it's "break yo self foo"

 

[Alistar7]

I said brace....

 

[notfred]

Can English speaking people really not know the difference between "brace" and "break"?

 

[HombrePequeno]

break yourself:

Run away.

Break yourself, muthufvcku.

From dictionary.com

 

[ProviaFan]

Get over it, people. The proper ENGLISH phrase is brace yourself. I don't fvcking care what the latest gangsta rap expression is. That isn't proper English, and the usage thereof is limited to those who think that repeating whatever the popular slang is at the moment makes themselves cool. :disgust:

 

[HombrePequeno]

Originally posted by: jliechty
Get over it, people. The proper ENGLISH phrase is brace yourself[/b]. I don't fvcking care what the latest gangsta rap expression is. That isn't proper English, and the usage thereof is limited to those who think that repeating whatever the popular slang is at the moment makes themselves cool. :disgust:

Do you honestly go around saying brace yourself? To me that just sounds retarded.

 

[spidey07]

LOL!

"u betta break sum'n off foo"

Ebonics at its best.

 

[ProviaFan]

Originally posted by: HombrePequeno

Originally posted by: jliechty
Get over it, people. The proper ENGLISH phrase is brace yourself. I don't fvcking care what the latest gangsta rap expression is. That isn't proper English, and the usage thereof is limited to those who think that repeating whatever the popular slang is at the moment makes themselves cool. :disgust:

Do you honestly go around saying brace yourself? To me that just sounds retarded.

Do you honestly go around saying break yourself (especially in the way illustrated by various participants in this thread)? To me that sounds just retarted. Perhaps it's just because I was taught that it is best to actually make a small attempt at using proper English.

 

[ThisIsMatt]

Originally posted by: HombrePequeno

Originally posted by: jliechty
Get over it, people. The proper ENGLISH phrase is brace yourself[/b]. I don't fvcking care what the latest gangsta rap expression is. That isn't proper English, and the usage thereof is limited to those who think that repeating whatever the popular slang is at the moment makes themselves cool. :disgust:

Do you honestly go around saying brace yourself? To me that just sounds retarded.

Man, you're the only one sounding retarded.

 

[Sketcher]

Originally posted by: Brutuskend

Originally posted by: MacBaine
It's 'brace yourself'. You are 'bracing', not 'breaking'

Yup yup.

 

[VBboy]

According to Ivan Dragov in Rocky IV, "I must break you"

 

[HombrePequeno]

Originally posted by: jliechty

Originally posted by: HombrePequeno

Originally posted by: jliechty
Get over it, people. The proper ENGLISH phrase is brace yourself. I don't fvcking care what the latest gangsta rap expression is. That isn't proper English, and the usage thereof is limited to those who think that repeating whatever the popular slang is at the moment makes themselves cool. :disgust:

Do you honestly go around saying brace yourself? To me that just sounds retarded.

Do you honestly go around saying break yourself (especially in the way illustrated by various participants in this thread)? To me that sounds just retarded. Perhaps it's just because I was taught that it is best to actually make a small attempt at using proper English.

Proper English changes throughout the ages. What was proper back in Shakespeare's time sounds kind of weird today. Slang is part of the language. You have your own slang and others have theirs. Honestly I've never heard "brace yourself" before but have heard "break yourself" so that's how I would say (which I never really do).