[Ads-l] "kick the bucket"

Fri Feb 19 11:46:39 UTC 2016

As Stephen noted, the ADS archive has some early citations. In 2015
Peter Morris found instances in 1774, 1775, 1780 and 1784. Back in
2011 I found instances in 1778 and 1780.

http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/ads-l/2015-September/139014.html
http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/ads-l/2015-September/139015.html

Below is an entertaining instance; the confusion described seems familiar.

A writer in "The London Magazine" in May 1780 remarked that he did not
know what the phrase kicking the bucket meant, but he was told that
"it is an expression used to inform us of a person's death". He
humorously suggested two alternative phrases to signal mortality.

Date: May 1780
Periodical: The London Magazine: Or, Gentleman's Monthly Intelligencer
Volume 49
Publication Information: Printed for R. Baldwin, London
Article: For the London Magazine: Observations on the Errors and
Corruptions that Have Crept into the English Language
Start Page 201, Quote Page 202

https://books.google.com/books?id=91QDAAAAMAAJ&q=%22the+bucket%22#v=snippet&

[Begin excerpt - double check for errors]
I should have been at a loss also to have
known the significance of kicking the
bucket, but am told it is an expression
used to inform us of a person's death,
although I should no sooner apprehend
it to be so than if I were told he had let
fall his watch, or rapped at my door.
The poor man's dying rich, although
the expression be a bull in itself, yet it
is but a small deviation from truth, be-
cause we have continual examples of
those, who in the midst of riches and
wealth, have the same proportion of
poverty in respect to happiness and
ease of mind; . . .
[End excerpt]

Garson

On Fri, Feb 19, 2016 at 5:41 AM, Stephen Goranson <goranson at duke.edu> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Stephen Goranson <goranson at DUKE.EDU>
> Subject:      "kick the bucket"
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> 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 socie=
> ty list archive.)
> I suggest that focus on the sense of "bucket" may mislead us. The verb "kic=
> k" 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
>
> http://people.duke.edu/~goranson/
>
> Stephen Goranson's Home Page - Duke University<http://people.duke.edu/~gora=
> nson/>
> people.duke.edu
> Stephen Goranson. goranson "at" duke "dot" edu _____ Jannaeus.pdf. My paper=
>  on the history of Alexander Jannaeus as the Qumran- and Essene-view "Wicke=
> d Priest" and ...
>
>
>
>
> I agree that the proposals offered (and another "proof" I encountered) are =
> not persuasive. (Also, there are some antedatings at american dialect socie=
> ty list archive.)
> I suggest that focus on the sense of "bucket" may mislead us. The verb "kic=
> k" v. 1 sense 1 b is already attested earlier as slang: "1725 New Canting D=
> ict. 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-buck=
> et-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 socie=
> ty list archive.)
> I suggest that focus on the sense of "bucket" may mislead us. The verb "kic=
> k" v. 1 sense 1 b is already attested earlier as slang: "1725 New Canting D=
> ict. 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-buck=
> et-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 socie=
> ty list archive.)
> I suggest that focus on the sense of "bucket" may mislead us. The verb "kic=
> k" v. 1 sense 1 b is already attested earlier as slang: "1725 New Canting D=
> ict. 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-buck=
> et-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 socie=
> ty list archive.)
> I suggest that focus on the sense of "bucket" may mislead us. The verb "kic=
> k" v. 1 sense 1 b is already attested earlier as slang: "1725 New Canting D=
> ict. 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-buck=
> et-idiom-origin-etymology/#sthash.VqiIy6Sj.dpuf
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org