THE CAT'S PAJAMAS LV 

Tad Tuleja  

 

A collection of the (mostly) true origins of familiar phrases

 

KICK THE BUCKET

 

Kick the bucket is a euphemism for dying. Why would kicking a bucket cause you to die? The very unpleasant answer is that in the days before scaffolds, the condemned man would be stood on a bucket, the rope would be put around his neck, and the bucket would be kicked out from under him. Or, in an even more distasteful variation, he would be left standing on the bucket until he himself kicked it out. 

 

Whether or not this is true is a matter of dispute, because there is evidence that scaffolds were invented before buckets. This seems hard to believe since a bucket is a practical necessity that would seem to be needed long before a scaffold for hanging. 

Either way, the actual origin of Kick the bucket goes back to 1820's New Orleans. A notorious brawler named Claude Bouchet worked as a gambling house bouncer in the Latin Quarter and was known as the "Medusa of Bourbon Street." The nickname referred to the fact that "he was thought to be as ugly as the Gorgon, and in addition was deadly to cross. When Bouchet was in one of his snits - which was often - brave men would avoid him like the plague, for he had turned many to stone with his fists."

One of the ill-tempered bouncer's victims was a dandified gambler from upriver who had not heard of the Gorgon's reputation. "One summer evening, the two men passed in the street. The Gorgon shoved the gambler from his path and kept walking, but the newcomer wouldn't let it go. He picked himself up, ran after Bouchet, and planted a boot in the seat of his pants. Of course he was dead in five minutes, and ever after that, to "kick the Bouchet" was a Bourbon Street expression for dying. As the term made its way north, mispronouncing "Bouchet" in the process, the expression became Kick the bucket.