[Ads-l] "kick the bucket"

[Stephen Goranson]

Anatoly Liberman recently wrote about "kick the bucket" here:


http://blog.oup.com/2016/02/kick-the-bucket-idiom-origin-etymology/


I commented:


I agree that the proposals offered (and another "proof" I encountered) are not persuasive. (Also, there are some antedatings at american dialect society list archive.)
I suggest that focus on the sense of "bucket" may mislead us. The verb "kick" v. 1 sense 1 b is already attested earlier as slang: "1725   New Canting Dict.   Kick'd, gone, fled, departed."
So, perhaps, left, departed life, or the job, or the vessel, or some other bucket-associated entity or image.
"Bucket" adds (emphatic?) sound play after "kick," kick bucket.
Perhaps compare 'kick off,' "kick up," "kick out," and maybe even the later "kick the habit."


Stephen Goranson

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Stephen Goranson. goranson "at" duke "dot" edu _____ Jannaeus.pdf. My paper on the history of Alexander Jannaeus as the Qumran- and Essene-view "Wicked Priest" and ...




I agree that the proposals offered (and another "proof" I encountered) are not persuasive. (Also, there are some antedatings at american dialect society list archive.)
I suggest that focus on the sense of "bucket" may mislead us. The verb "kick" v. 1 sense 1 b is already attested earlier as slang: "1725 New Canting Dict. Kick'd, gone, fled, departed."
So. perhaps, left, departed life, or the job, or the vessel, or some other bucket-associated entity or image.
"Bucket" adds (emphatic?) sound play after "kick," kick bucket.
Perhaps compare 'kick off,' "kick up," "kick out," and maybe even the later "kick the habit." - See more at: http://blog.oup.com/2016/02/kick-the-bucket-idiom-origin-etymology/#sthash.VqiIy6Sj.dpuf



I agree that the proposals offered (and another "proof" I encountered) are not persuasive. (Also, there are some antedatings at american dialect society list archive.)
I suggest that focus on the sense of "bucket" may mislead us. The verb "kick" v. 1 sense 1 b is already attested earlier as slang: "1725 New Canting Dict. Kick'd, gone, fled, departed."
So. perhaps, left, departed life, or the job, or the vessel, or some other bucket-associated entity or image.
"Bucket" adds (emphatic?) sound play after "kick," kick bucket.
Perhaps compare 'kick off,' "kick up," "kick out," and maybe even the later "kick the habit." - See more at: http://blog.oup.com/2016/02/kick-the-bucket-idiom-origin-etymology/#sthash.VqiIy6Sj.dpuf



I agree that the proposals offered (and another "proof" I encountered) are not persuasive. (Also, there are some antedatings at american dialect society list archive.)
I suggest that focus on the sense of "bucket" may mislead us. The verb "kick" v. 1 sense 1 b is already attested earlier as slang: "1725 New Canting Dict. Kick'd, gone, fled, departed."
So. perhaps, left, departed life, or the job, or the vessel, or some other bucket-associated entity or image.
"Bucket" adds (emphatic?) sound play after "kick," kick bucket.
Perhaps compare 'kick off,' "kick up," "kick out," and maybe even the later "kick the habit." - See more at: http://blog.oup.com/2016/02/kick-the-bucket-idiom-origin-etymology/#sthash.VqiIy6Sj.dpuf
I agree that the proposals offered (and another "proof" I encountered) are not persuasive. (Also, there are some antedatings at american dialect society list archive.)
I suggest that focus on the sense of "bucket" may mislead us. The verb "kick" v. 1 sense 1 b is already attested earlier as slang: "1725 New Canting Dict. Kick'd, gone, fled, departed."
So. perhaps, left, departed life, or the job, or the vessel, or some other bucket-associated entity or image.
"Bucket" adds (emphatic?) sound play after "kick," kick bucket.
Perhaps compare 'kick off,' "kick up," "kick out," and maybe even the later "kick the habit." - See more at: http://blog.oup.com/2016/02/kick-the-bucket-idiom-origin-etymology/#sthash.VqiIy6Sj.dpuf




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