<P> Whatever African American usage might have been in the 19th century, by the 20th century they were using the idiom' kick the bucket' . It occurs in the jazz classic Old Man Mose, recorded by Louis Armstrong in the US in 1935, and in the West Indies it figured in the title of the reggae hit "Long Shot kick de bucket", recorded by The Pioneers in 1969 . In the case of the latter, the song refers to the death of a horse . </P> <P> In North America, a variation of the idiom is' kick off' . A related phrase is to "hand in one's dinner pail", a bucket that contains a worker's dinner . Another variation,' bucket list', or a list of things to do before one dies, is derived from to kick the bucket, popularized by the 2007 film The Bucket List . </P>

Where did the idiom kick the bucket come from