The Creepy Beginnings of 10 Death-Related Phrases

In 2016, Chapman University surveyed 1,511 Americans about their concerns regarding common fears, including crime, natural disasters, and even clowns. Not surprisingly, death was on many minds. Around 38% of those surveyed said the thought of losing a loved one frightened them greatly, while about 19% feared their own demise.

That latter figure may reflect less about the fear of dying itself and more about our tendency to avoid the subject. We frequently sidestep our mortality by ignoring it, cracking jokes, or disguising it with euphemisms, making it easier to deny the reality that all of us have an expiration date. For centuries, idioms have provided a way to skirt the topic, replacing direct talk with softer terms. Let’s explore some of the most common death-related idioms and where they might have come from.

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Pass Away

Among all the euphemisms for “passing away,” few are as confusing as the phrase kick the bucket. One common—and deeply grim—interpretation suggests that someone who took their own life might have stood on a platform, kicked it away, and hanged themselves, causing the rope to tighten. In this case, the bucket would literally be kicked.

However, this theory relies on the assumption that bucket referred to a stool, or that it was the only convenient stand-in for one. More plausibly, the idiom comes from another definition. In 16th-century England, a bucket also referred to a frame or yoke used for hanging things. If an animal was being slaughtered, it might kick the frame either in a last-ditch attempt to escape or in a reflex after death.

Beneath the Earth

When it comes to death-related idioms, this one is quite literal. The phrase "six feet under" refers to the common burial depth of a coffin—six feet below the surface. But why exactly six feet? It traces back to the plague. In 1665, when the disease ravaged England, the mayor of London mandated that bodies be buried at least six feet deep to help prevent the spread of the deadly pestilence, which claimed over 100,000 lives. While this regulation no longer applies today, graves may now be as shallow as four feet.

Crossing Over the Rainbow Bridge

When a cherished pet passes away, the phrase crossing the rainbow bridge is often used in the announcement. Though this phrase has become widely used on social media, its origins stretch back to the 1980s, before the rise of Facebook. The expression has been claimed by three different authors, each having written a poem about it, referring to a mythical connection between heaven and Earth. The idea is that pet and owner are reunited in the afterlife. The concept of a colorful bridge may have been inspired by Norse mythology, where the Bifröst bridge connected Midgard (the human realm) to Asgard (the spiritual world).

As lifeless as a doornail

Why would anyone compare someone’s health—whether good or bad—to carpentry? The earliest known use of the phrase dead as a doornail dates back to a 1350 translation of the 12th-century French poem Guillaume de Palerne. William Shakespeare incorporated it into Henry VI, Part 2 around 1591, and Charles Dickens referenced it in his 1843 classic A Christmas Carol, where he described Marley’s death with the line “Old Marley was as dead as a door nail,” later speculating (through the narrator) that it would have made more sense to say “coffin nail,” considering it was “the deadest piece of ironmongery in the trade.”

One possible reason for this idiom is that nails used to secure wooden doors were hammered through and then bent on the exposed end, making them permanently useless for any other job. The process of bending the nail, known as “clenching,” likely rendered the nail 'dead.' Another theory is that the effort it took to hammer the nail into the door effectively made it ‘dead’ from the blunt trauma of the hammer strike.

Pushing up Daisies

This gardening-inspired euphemism uses a gentle image of daisies to soften the stark reality of the decaying body beneath the earth. The phrase may have originally been 'turn one’s toes to the daisies.' A version appears in the tale 'The Babes in the Wood,' found in Richard Harris Barham’s 1840s Ingoldsby Legends folklore collection, where the phrase is used in the line, 'be kind to those dear little folks/When our toes are turned up to the daisies.' Another variation, 'I shall very soon hide my name under some daisies,' was written by Scottish author George MacDonald in 1866.

Bite the Dust

Although Queen is often credited with popularizing the phrase (“Another One Bites the Dust”), they were not the ones to create it. The concept of sudden death causing a body to collapse into dust has roots that go back much further.

The phrase lick the dust can be traced to Psalms 72 in the King James version of the Bible (“They that dwell in the wilderness shall bow before him and his enemies shall lick the dust”), which sounds considerably more threatening. The modified 'bite' version appeared in the French novel The Adventures of Gil Blas of Santillane, translated by Tobias Smollett between 1715 and 1735 by Alain-René Lesage. It also surfaces in a 19th-century English translation of Homer’s Iliad, though it’s uncertain whether the phrase should be attributed to Homer or translator Samuel Butler.

Sleeping With the Fishes

A phrase commonly found in both mob stories and their parodies, to sleep with the fishes suggests that a rival has been murdered and likely disposed of in a body of water. Luca Brasi met this grim fate in the 1972 film The Godfather. However, the expression dates back to 1836 and German villagers who used it to warn off a fly fisherman. As Edmund Spencer explains in Sketches of Germany and the Germans, the villagers threatened the man with violence, phrasing it as a warning that 'he would sleep with the fishes.' Fish do, in fact, sleep, though not in the conventional sense, as they lack eyelids. Instead, they relax their tails and enter a state of reduced activity.

Shuffle Off This Mortal Coil

This poetic phrase is another of Shakespeare's lasting contributions to the language of death. In the 1602 play Hamlet, he wrote, 'For in that sleep of death what dreams may come, when we have shuffled off this mortal coil, must give us pause.' At that time, the word coil or coile meant 'fuss,' making the phrase a reflection on leaving behind the struggles and turmoil of mortal life.

Buying the Farm

The phrase bought the farm is used to describe someone who has passed away. This expression may have originated with military pilots during the 20th century. If a fighter jet crashed onto a farm, the farm owner might have been able to sue the government for damages. The settlement could, in theory, pay for the farm, with the deceased pilot indirectly 'buying' the land. Alternatively, the pilot's family could receive a payout that covers their farm mortgage. Another possible origin of the phrase is the use of 'farm' as slang for a burial plot, and 'bought it' being an older slang term meaning 'died.'

Laid Out in Lavender

The phrase laid out in lavender refers to preparing a body for viewing or burial, often with the use of pleasant fragrances to mask the unpleasant odor of decay. This death-related idiom is inspired by the practice of using lavender to preserve clothes from insects. The expression may have first appeared in a 1926 article from the Syracuse Herald, where a book reviewer mentioned a detective story that featured a family 'laid out in lavender.'