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honey bucket
DCHP-2 (Nov 2016)
Spelling variants:honey-bucket
n. — Slang, rural, Territories
a container used in place of a toilet.
Type: 5. Frequency — The term honey bucket is a euphemism for a type of improvised toilet (see the 1964 quotation). It generally consists of a bucket or a pail (see the 1959 quotation) lined with a plastic bag (see honey bag). Honey buckets are used in places with no or poor plumbing systems, especially where plumbing freezes in the winter and the extreme cold makes the use of outhouses difficult. As seen in Chart 1, the term is most frequently used in Canada, and in particular, its colder regions (see Chart 2). The word possibly derives from use in the Canadian military, as it is defined and marked as a "Canadian" term in the glossary section of a book recounting slang and songs from British soldiers throughout World War I (Brophy & Partridge 1931: 318, DS-5 s.v. "honey-bucket").
See also Gage-3, s.v. "honey bucket", which is marked "Cdn. Slang." and OED-3, s.v. "honey bucket" (2), which is marked "N. Amer. Slang (chiefly Canad. and Alaska).
See also Gage-3, s.v. "honey bucket", which is marked "Cdn. Slang." and OED-3, s.v. "honey bucket" (2), which is marked "N. Amer. Slang (chiefly Canad. and Alaska).
See: honey bag
Quotations
1959
The house was laid out for plumbing (to be linked with the North Rankin Nickel Mine water lines). This was delayed through lack of equipment and month after month we hauled water in pails, wrestled with a "honey-bucket", folded ourselves into the square washtub to bathe and heated all water on the stove.
1962
". . . And where do they get the money? From emptying honey buckets for the Whites and mostly sitting on their butts--no sweat for them. . . ."
1964
In Inuvik there are flush toilets. Here [Sachs Harbour] there is only the "honey bucket" to empty.
1975
... All the people here, even the white people, use honey buckets for their human waste, except this one civil servant who has a flush toilet.
1981
At regular intervals along the road, an unpainted wooden platform rises, reached by five wooden steps. On the platform are three or four gaily colored metal barrels and sometimes green plastic bags. Here is where the people put their refuse: their garbage and the human excrement which has accumulated in a "honey bucket" lined with a green garbage bag.
1997
MORNINGS for most residents on this craggy island begin with the dumping of the honey bucket, a cheeky Labrador idiom for pails used as toilets. Few homes in the fishing community here have indoor plumbing, and those people lucky enough to have real toilets with a discharge line to the harbour still must lug buckets of water to their houses. In the winter, when the ponds are frozen, most residents ride a snowmobile to a brook eight kilometres away and chop a hole in the ice.
2005
The students have a blast with daily chores, like being part of the wake-up crew (banging on pots and pans), or the "honey-bucket crew" (emptying the buckets they used for toilets).
2012
A "honey bucket" is basically a can with a toilet seat and lid. The bucket is lined with the equivalent to an extra-strength green garbage bag, and Pine Sol cleaner is used to disguise the eau due turd.
References
- OED-3
- Gage-3
- DS-5
- Brophy & Partridge (1931)
Images
Chart 1: Internet Domain Search, 3 Jun. 2014
