Talk:Kick the bucket

A fact from Kick the bucket appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 21 July 2009 (check views). The text of the entry was as follows:

Did you know... that the idiom kick the bucket probably comes from a method of suicide in the middle ages?

A record of the entry may be seen at Wikipedia:Recent additions/2009/July.

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Linguistics: Etymology

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Untitled

I think this page should be about the origin of the term, and linking to Death

Untitled2

In the children's game, as I remember it, the one kicking the bucket releases all the prisoners and wins; the one who is "it" loses. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.219.5.61 (talk) 06:24, 21 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Please supply the sources so that I can add this fact. Kayau Wuthering Heights VANITY FAIR paradise lost 11:17, 10 August 2009 (UTC)[reply]

The sources for what? For the IP's memory (as in personal memories of childhood games)? *headdesk*

A request for sources only makes sense if the person does not indicate where their knowledge is from, or they say something that suggests a potentially citeable source in the first place. Personal experience is, unfortunately, not citeable, at least as long as braindumps are not possible. --Florian Blaschke (talk) 14:09, 9 April 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Mediaeval origin

I am transferring the speculative theorising here from the article's first section.

"A common theory is that the idiom comes from a method of execution such as hanging, or perhaps suicide, in the Middle Ages.^[1] A noose is tied around the neck while the victim is placed standing on an overturned bucket. When the bucket is kicked away, the victim is hanged. However, most buckets in the Middle Ages were made of leather and could not have been used in this way. Furthermore, the medieval method of hanging was to tie a noose round the neck of the victim and suspend them from gibbet, to die by strangulation, rather than the 19th or 20th century method of dropping the victim and breaking his neck (a method for which a wooden bucket could be used)."

Speculation by Kerry Deary is not a reliable source. There is no evidence that the phrase dates from the Middle Ages and the later additions here seem to disprove it. Since Wikipedia requires proper referencing, the section will be removed. Mzilikazi1939 (talk) 16:05, 7 September 2014 (UTC)[reply]

References

^ Terry Deary, Horrible Histories: Wicked Words p. 56

Poultry processing

When farmers killed chickens for food they would throw them in large buckets to prevent them from running away. Yes, sometimes chickens will do that after they are beheaded. While in the bucket, they have nerve spasms that make them flip on their backs and move their legs like they are running. The result is that they constantly kick the sides of the bucket. Thus, when a chicken dies, they have "kicked the bucket." — Preceding unsigned comment added by 73.139.152.164 (talk) 17:38, 24 August 2018 (UTC)[reply]

[hh1-1] Terry Deary, Horrible Histories: Wicked Words p. 56

[1]