Where does the saying "Kick the bucket" regarding a death originate?

Question

Why is death sometimes referred to as 'kicking the bucket'" From where or what did this term originate?

Answer 1

The link between buckets and death was made by at least 1785, when the phrase was defined in Grose’s Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue:



"To kick the bucket, to die."



One theory as to why, albeit with little evidence to support it, is that the phrase originates from the notion that people hanged themselves by standing on a bucket with a noose around their neck and then kicking the bucket away. There are no citations that relate the phrase to suicide and, in any case, why a bucket? Whenever I've needed something to stand on I can't recall ever opting for a bucket. This theory doesn't stand up any better than the supposed buckets did.



The mist begins to clear with the fact that in 16th century England bucket had an additional meaning (and in some parts it still has), i.e. a beam or yoke used to hang or carry items. The term may have been introduced into English from the French trébuchet - meaning a balance, or buque - meaning a yoke. That meaning of bucket was referred to in Peter Levins' Manipulus vocabulorum. A dictionarie of English and Latine wordes, 1570:



"A Bucket, beame, tollo."



and was used by Shakespeare in Henry IV Part II, 1597:



"Swifter then he that gibbets on the Brewers Bucket." [to gibbet meant to hang]



The wooden frame that was used to hang animals up by their feet for slaughter was called a bucket. Not unnaturally they were likely to struggle or to spasm after death and hence 'kick the bucket'.

Answer 2

There are many theories as to where this idiom comes from, but the OED (Oxford English Dictionary) discusses the following:



A person standing on a pail or bucket with their head in a slip noose would kick the bucket so as to commit suicide. The OED, however, says this is mainly speculative;



The OED describes as more plausible the archaic use of "bucket" as a beam from which a pig is hung by its feet prior to being slaughtered. To kick the bucket, then, originally signified the pig's death throes;



Another explanation is given by a Roman Catholic Bishop, The Right Reverend Abbot Horne, F.S.A. He records on page 6 of his booklet "Relics of Popery" Catholic Truth Society London, 1949, the following:



"After death, when a body had been laid out, ... and ... the holy-water bucket was brought from the church and put at the feet of the corpse. When friend came to pray... they would sprinkle the body with holy water .. it is easy to see how such a saying as " kicking the bucket " came about. Many other explanations of this saying have been given by persons who are unacquainted with Catholic custom"

Answer 3

The actual origin of the term is from England, and began in the later middle ages. A corpse would be laid out, and a bucket of holy water placed at its feet. Visitors could then sprinkle the deceased with Holy Water. Other explanations (suicide, execution) came later to explain an idiom, of which the origin of the term had ceased, mainly as a result of the English reformation.

"To Kick the Bucket" is explained by Bishop Abbot Horne in 1949, in his booklet "Relics of Popery" Catholic Truth Society. He adds "Many other explanations of this saying have been given by persons who are unaquainted with Catholic Custom"

Answer 4

From the locals.

Look in the real world.

Decode this lyrics " You'll see "

"Wonderful world"

From East Asia.

The rudeness tribe.

Luke 21.30-36

Luke 24.44-45,47-48

What do you think?