CC0 via Wikimedia Commons. Send your etymology question to him care of blog oup. Our Privacy Policy sets out how Oxford University Press handles your personal information, and your rights to object to your personal information being used for marketing to you or being processed as part of our business activities. We will only use your personal information to register you for OUPblog articles. Or subscribe to articles in the subject area by email or RSS. A simple metaphor maybe?
Just wondering if kicking the bucket could originate from student slang and if there were students from this part of the world a that time. This would go as refusing drinking but only because of death. Sounds like student folklore. Peter out seems to be a technical term for a discovery of gold or other precious metal that yields for a short while and then becomes exhausted, the opposite of pan out. The application to human death is obvious: cf.
Job What is not so obvious is why peter out should have had this sense in the first place. Cannot remember when I first came across the phrase but wonder if it was during my detective story reading days in the s. Did Agatha Christie or Leslie Charteris use the phrase by any chance?
Also, there are some antedatings at american dialect society list archive. I am Not an expert, but it takes a lot of courage to kick over the bucket to commit suicide. Choosing to commit suicide was more honorable, but a tough show of will to do so. I might check more in Deep South of US for possible clues. Just a clue. Buy Now. By Anatoly Liberman February 17 th Last week, in discussing the antiquated idiom hang out the broom , I mentioned kick the bucket and will now return to it.
Kicking the bucket is fun. Subscribe to the OUPblog via email: Our Privacy Policy sets out how Oxford University Press handles your personal information, and your rights to object to your personal information being used for marketing to you or being processed as part of our business activities.
Recent Comments. Alice 17 th February John Cowan 17 th February He adds "Many other explanations of this saying have been given by persons who are unaquainted with Catholic Custom".
One of many synonyms for " die ". She was gonna try to hold off until May 17th , which was when my grandpa died, but ultimately she kicked the bucket. Pigs to be slaughtered are bled , that is the blood is drained from the body. One way this is accomplished is to hang the pig upside down from a bar by one foot that used to be known as a "buchet," a French word for it. The pig's throat was cut or opened with a sharp spike, and it would rapidly be bled.
In its death throes , it would always kick the buchet. The old man fianlly kicked the bucket. Now, many people make bucket lists of their own. Items on your bucket list can include destinations you want to visit, professional goals you want to accomplish, foods you want to try, and more. There are different types of bucket lists you can make, too. Some of them can even help you better determine what types of items you want to include on your general bucket list. For example, you might start the process by creating a reverse bucket list.
People have been using the phrase for so long that determining its precise origins is a challenge. As far as euphemisms for death go, kick the bucket might sound like one of the more playful. Well, think again.
Here are the two most popular origins of the phrase:. Some believe the phrase kick the bucket refers specifically to a bucket someone might stand on when hanging themself. After all, kicking the bucket involves dying in any form, not just taking your own life. Centuries ago, the word also had an additional meaning. Specifically, the bucket could refer to a beam butcher would use to hang animals from their feet before slaughtering them.
During their final moments of life, the animals would often kick the beam, or bucket.
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