Bucket List

[John M. Spartz]

The current movie, "The Bucket List" may have started something. Listening to
ESPN Radio on XM the other day, I heard the commentators talking about their
"Sports Bucket Lists" (a sub-list of the bucket list?) which included things
such as watching a game a Fenway Park, going to the Football Hall of Fame, and
attending the Indy 500, among other things. Obviously the idea of creating a
list of things to do before one dies isn't new (lots of books and such on this),
but the name might be.

Also, a Google search for *Bucket List* yields, primarily, hits related to the
movie. But, there does seem to be some use of this term in the "wild" (e.g.
http://www.black-iris.com/2007/12/27/whats-your-bucket-list/), albeit derived
from the movie title.

This obviously come from *Kick the Bucket*, but I can't seem to find a
definitive etymology of this idiom/euphemism. Discussion (even in OED) ranges
from a person standing on a bucket (and then kicking it) for committing suicide
by hanging to the placing of the holy-water bucket at the feet of the diseased
for sprinkling and blessing in Catholic funerals. Any more definitive explanations?

John
__________________________________________
John M. Spartz
jspartz at purdue.edu
English Linguistics
Purdue University

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