Kick the Bucket

Phrase is used to say that someone is dead or has deceased. The actual origin of the term is from England and dates back to the late Middle Ages. A corpse would be laid out and a bucket of holy water placed at its feet. Visitors then could sprinkle the deceased with holy water. Other explanations (suicide, execution) came later to explain an idiom, the origin of which has ceased mainly as a result of the English reformation.

" To Kick the Bucket" is explained by Bishop Abbot Horne in 1949, in his booklet "Relics of Popery" Catholic Truth Society. He adds "Many other explanations of this saying have been given by persons who are unacquainted with Catholic Custom."

Other sources explain that the term is derived from the times when suicides were common by a person preparing to hang himself/herself and used a bucket to stand on and then kicked the bucket when suicide was desired.

Ole' Charlie kicked the bucket today, we better prepare for his funeral.

Pigs to be slaughtered are bled, that is the blood is drained from the body. One way this is accomplished if to hang the pig upside down from a bar (by one foot) that used to be known as a "buchet", a French word for it. The pig's throat was cut or opened with a sharp spike, and it would rapidly be bled. In its death throes, it would always kick the bucket.

To pull one's leg

If you try to pull someone's leg, you try and make them believe something that isn't true. "You're pulling my leg!" is another way of saying "I don't believe what you're saying" or "You must be joking!"

It often has humorous associations but the origin of the expression has nothing to do with making jokes or telling funny stories. It has its origins in the criminal world of 18th and 19th century London. In those days street robbers often worked in gangs of two. One would trip up the unsuspecting victim and the other would remove his money and other valuables while he was lying on the ground. The robber didn't literally pull the victim's leg but caused him to stumble and fall and then lose his valuables. If your leg is pulled now, you don't lose your money but you might betray your ignorance and lose your temper.

V. Vinoradov’s classification system does not take into account the structural characteristics of PUs. The border-line separating unities from fusions is vague and even subjective. One and the same phraseological unit may appear motivated to one person (and therefore be labeled as a unity) and demotivated to another (and be regarded as a fusion).