Why do people say someone who has died has "kicked the bucket"?

Answer 1

There are two main theories about this one. One suggests that the word doesn’t refer to our modern bucket at all, but to a sixteenth century word that comes from the French buque, meaning a yoke or similar piece of wood. It is said that the word was applied in particular to the beam from which a pig was hung in order to be slaughtered. Inevitably, the pig would struggle during the process, and would kick the buque.

The expression is attested to in particular by a citation in the Oxford English Dictionary: “The beam on which a pig is suspended after he has been slaughtered is called in Norfolk, even in the present day, a ‘bucket’. Since he is suspended by his heels, the phrase to ‘kick the bucket’ came to signify to die.”

The other explanation, much less credible, is that the bucket is the one on which a suicide stands when hanging himself — kick away the bucket and the job is done.

Answer 2

KICK THE BUCKET – “A suicide who stands on a pail, slips at noose around his neck and kicks the pail, or bucket out from under him would be the logical choice for the origin of this old slang term meaning to die. However, some etymologists say the phrase comes from an entirely different source. Slaughtered hogs, their throats slit, used to be hung by their heels, which were tied to a wooden block and the rope then thrown over a pulley that hoisted the animals up. Because hoisting the block was similar to raising a bucket from a well, the wooden block came to be called a ‘bucket,’ and the dying struggles of the hogs kicking against this ‘bucket’ supposedly gave birth to the phrase. There are other theories, however, and this old expression – it may date back to the 16th century – must be marked of unknown origin.”

Answer 3

When there were only Kings and Commoners
Your handmaiden was yours to do with as you
saw fit. A young girl who usually did the milking.
If the bucket was left, so the cow could kick it
over, or the milk was spilled in any way, it was
supposed that the girl was being lazy and not
attending to her duties. She would then be justly
be-headed. Or hung, standing her on the empty pail.
Eighteenth-century Americans, enjoyed blessings
in disguise and built castles in the air, but none
lived on Easy Street, or ever put on the dog. They
kicked the bucket, but never knocked at the pearly gates.They knew mum's the word, but kept nothing
under their hats. Which is to say, that they enriched
their speech with idiomatic expressions, that still trip
from our tongues, but that some of the colonial derivations given for old folk phrases, turn out to ring hollow.

Answer 4

Comes from the days of hanging. The culprit would stand on a bucket with a noose around their neck. The bucket would be kicked out from under them causing them to hang.

Answer 5

People used to hang themselves by standing on a bucket,then kicking it.Thus,its called kick the bucket.

Answer 6

maybe someone who died was sittin on the front porch when they keeled and when they did their foot went flyin back and they kicked the bucket and instead of straigh out sayin...Jinkins died they said he kicked the bucket and it became popular so they used it more often?


Or maybe since haning was popular back in the day it has to do wiht the bucket being kicked out from under they guy standing on it.....

Answer 7

Some old farmer back in the hayday down yonder keeled over and actually 'kicked a bucket' when he died.

Answer 8

When pigs were readied for slaughter, they were hoisted up by a block called "the bucket" and of course, they kicked against it before they died.

So, when you "kick the bucket", you die.

Answer 9

I have no idea. Sayings like that fascinate me.

When my mom taught me that (I was like 8) a friend said her dad was at a funeral and I aked, 'who kicked the bucket?'
My mom got really mad at me. It had never occured to me that it might be rude.

Answer 10

life is a bucket when you die it is kicked over.