Today I had a super-exciting activity planned in the morning – standup paddleboard yoga! Basically, it looks like this:
Photo credit: Brad Fyffe
(No, I didn’t attempt anything like this – I haven’t quite mastered those poses on land).
So, first we needed to get to grips with paddleboarding kneeling, then standing up (it was very wobbly!) and then we attached kettlebells to the boards and dropped them down (which I thought was very clever) to prevent the boards from moving around (they still did). It was an amazing experience, and the weather was just perfect! Then we had to fish the kettlebells out of the water and paddle back to the pontoon, and at some point one of my fellow paddleboarders ‘lost’ her kettlebell and summoned her boyfriend to help her find it. She said ‘I think our instructor jinxed it by saying they never lost a kettlebell’. Luckly, they did find it… and I found such a useful phrase to write about!
Here are a few more examples of how to jinx, meaning ‘to bring bad luck’, can be used:
– There were moments where we felt like we were jinxing the whole thing, pushing our luck, but we decided to test fate and stock up anyhow (Oxford Dictionaries).
– He hadnt got a bad grade all year, but by mentioning that to his friend he jinxed it (Urban Dictionary).
– Don’t jinx it by talking about it (Wordreference.com).
P.S. I have heard this expression a few times, but I think that in general the English are not a particularly superstitious bunch (unlike Russians!).
Confessions of the Linguistic Spy 