In bocca al lupo

Literally: Into the mouth of the wolf

Example: “In bocca al lupo per l'esame di domani!” — Break a leg in tomorrow's exam!

English equivalent: Break a leg

Origin: The Accademia della Crusca, Italy's foremost linguistic authority, does not settle on a single confirmed origin. The most commonly cited theory reaches for hunting superstition: wishing a hunter into the mouth of the very wolf he was pursuing was a deliberately ill-sounding blessing, following the old superstitious logic that wishing someone bad luck out loud would magically ward the real thing off — the traditional reply, crepi (may it die), keeps that same inverted logic intact. A second, more speculative theory proposes that the phrase is a corrupted borrowing from Greek émbaine álypon (odón), literally "take the path without pain," with émbaine worn down into in bocca and álypon into lupo over generations of oral transmission. Either way, the phrase functions as an antiphrasis, a wish expressed through its apparent opposite, precisely the same logic behind saying "break a leg" in English theater.