break
Etymology & Historical development
Earliest recorded evidence - 1886. This meaning really only
exists in this sense in collocation with record or words
representing scores in sporting contexts - as break the hundred.
Cf. the cricket phrase break one's duck, of a similar age.
A development of the basic sense "to destroy the cohesion of",
"to break a state or condition". In Old English times used only
of breaking bones and limbs. From Middle English times also used
of the heart.