Galateasdream
Active Member
Here's some more proof:
In the entry bucket2, the OED, usually reticent about the origin of such phrases, mentioned what Murray considered might be the most plausible idea. I am writing this essay for two reasons. First, the OED suggested a certain etymology of kick the bucket as a possibility, while numerous books copied the suggestion without any warning signals, added bells and whistles to it, and presented the carefully worded hypothesis as fact. Second, next to the whole nine yards, this is the idiom about which I have been asked most often.
More on idioms: “kick the bucket” | OUPblog
In the entry bucket2, the OED, usually reticent about the origin of such phrases, mentioned what Murray considered might be the most plausible idea. I am writing this essay for two reasons. First, the OED suggested a certain etymology of kick the bucket as a possibility, while numerous books copied the suggestion without any warning signals, added bells and whistles to it, and presented the carefully worded hypothesis as fact. Second, next to the whole nine yards, this is the idiom about which I have been asked most often.
More on idioms: “kick the bucket” | OUPblog