Where did the expression "kick the Bucket" originate?

Question

Where did the expression "kick the Bucket" originate?

Answer 1

One theory as to why, albeit with little evidence to support it, is that the phrase originates from the notion that people hanged themselves by standing on a bucket with a noose around their neck and then kicking the bucket away.

Answer 2

I'm not sure when or where it began, but I saw it happen once. Grandma was drawing a couple of buckets of water from the well and had a heart attack, they said, and as she started falling, she kicked one of them clean over the well.