beyond the pail

[Jan Ivarsson TransEdit]

It is hard to draw any conclusions from dictionaries on matters like this - lexicographers as as human as we all are and tend to bend definitions towards their own usage. But I have always seen "bucket" and "pail" as synonyms and ascribed the use of one or the other to "personal preferences" or dialectal usage.

OED "Bucket":
 1. a. 'The vessel in which water is drawn out of a well.'  b. 'The vessels in which water is carried, particularly to quench a fire.' (J.)
   Buckets were formerly made of leather or wood; now of various materials, esp. metal or plastics. They are used as containers for many things. The local application of the word varies greatly: in the south-east of England and in U.S. a bucket is a round wooden pail with arched handle; in south of Scotland it is a 4-sided wooden vessel for carrying salt, coal, ashes, etc.

OED "Pail"
1. A vessel, usually of cylindrical or truncated obconical shape, made of wooden staves hooped with iron, or of sheet-metal, etc., and provided with a bail or hooped handle; used for carrying milk, water, etc.

Jan Ivarsson

----- Original Message -----
From: "sagehen" <sagehen at WESTELCOM.COM>
To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Sent: Saturday, March 08, 2003 1:46 AM
Subject: Re: [ADS-L] beyond the pail


> Mark Worden, quoting the Tenth Collegiate writes:
> For example, a pail is
> > said to have a handle, whereas nothing is mentioned about this
> > feature at the entry for "bucket" (suggesting that it could have a
> > handle but doesn't have to).  Both are defined as usually (or
> > typically) cylindrical vessels (or containers), but more is said about
> > a bucket's specific functions ("catching, holding, or carrying liquids
> > or solids"), which would seem to suggest that a pail isn't limited to
> > those functions.
> ~~~~~
> A familiar example in New England is the sap bucket.  It hung, by means of
> a hole just under its rim, on the spile which drained the sap from the
> tree. They usually needed no handle, since they were emptied in situ into
> the gathering tank that was drawn through the sugar bush by team or
> tractor.
> A. Murie
>