Etymology The noun is derived from bit (“small amount of something; smallest unit of storage in a digital computer, consisting of a binary digit”) + bucket. Bit in this context originally referred to small pieces of paper punched out from paper tape or punch cards (see sense 1), but came to be regarded as the unit of data storage (sense 2). The verb is derived from the noun.
1
Computing, Engineering, Mathematics, Natural sciences, Physical sciences, SciencesHistorical A container for holding chad (“small punched-out pieces of paper”) from paper tape or punch cards used with teleprinters, early computers, and other machines.
The lost bits fall into a container called a bit bucket. They are emptied periodically and the collected bits are used for confetti at weddings, parties, and other festive occasions.1964, Donald I. Cutler, chapter 6, in Introduction to Computer Programming, Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, →OCLC, footnote 1, page 108:
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Computing, Engineering, Mathematics, Natural sciences, Physical sciences, SciencesBroadly, Humorous, Slang An imaginary domain that accepts lost, discarded, or useless digital data that does not reach its intended destination, such as data lost in transmission or due to errors; the notional resting place of lost or missing digital information.
Applications [...] Overflow register (bit bucket)[1972], Fully Encoded, 9046 × N, Random Access Write-Only-Memory: Final Specification (Signetics; 25120), [Sunnyvale, Calif.]: Signetics, archived from the original on 16 Mar 2012, page 1, column 1:
bit bucket – the term for a routine or circuit that accepts binary signals and produces no output. Bit buckets are used for testing and to stand in for routines or circuits that have not been implemented at that particular point.1983 May 23, Steve Rosenthal, “Glossary: Rosenthal’s ABCs”, in Maggie Canon, editor, InfoWorld: The Newsweekly for Microcomputer Users, volume 5, number 21, Framingham, Mass.: Popular Computing, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 77, column 1:
4 more examples
Inside the computer, every time a byte moves from one component to another the hardware performs a parity check by counting the number of ones. [...] But let's say a power surge or some other line noise is picked up by the computer and the byte is scrambled. [...] The errant byte, having failed the parity test, is unceremoniously dumped into the bit bucket, the computer's wastepaper basket.1985 July 9, Erik Sandberg-Diment, “Personal computing: Parity: An elegantly simple approach to errors”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 27 Feb 2020, section C, page 4:
Fortunately, "RTM" [Robert Tappan Morris] was not out to deliberately cause damage. What would have happened if he had been? Millions of dollars in time and research data gone into the bit-bucket?1990 February 17, W. Paul Blase, “No harmless hacker he”, in The Washington Post, Washington, D.C.: The Washington Post Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 23 Nov 2017:
An alternative is for the automated spacecraft to assume that tracking is always available and to have the spacecraft take its data and return it accepting that some fraction of the time communication will in fact not be available. Science data would then go into the "bit bucket." Since current spacecraft are complex and expensive, the latter solution is rarely used (intentionally!) today.1995, Joan C. Horvath, “Spacecraft Autonomy Issues: Present and Future”, in Journal of the British Interplanetary Society, volume 49, number 6, London: British Interplanetary Society, published 1996, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 02 Dec 2020, page 218, column 1:
When a packet arrives, the first thing that is done is a cyclic redundancy check [...]. If the CRC does not match the one carried in the frame, then the packet is destroyed (sent to the "Bit Bucket" in Figure 16.1).2000, Scott Mann, Ellen L. Mitchell, “Packet Filtering with ipchains”, in Linux System Security: An Administrator’s Guide to Open Source Security Tools (Prentice Hall Series in Computer Networking and Distributed Systems), 2nd edition, Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall PTR, →ISBN, page 438:
Etymology The noun is derived from bit (“small amount of something; smallest unit of storage in a digital computer, consisting of a binary digit”) + bucket. Bit in this context originally referred to small pieces of paper punched out from paper tape or punch cards (see sense 1), but came to be regarded as the unit of data storage (sense 2). The verb is derived from the noun.
This DSC receives all inputs and performs all computations in synchronization with the online computer; however, the DSC outputs are "bit bucketed."1970, 1970 WESCON Technical Papers: Western Electronic Show and Convention: Papers Presented at the Western Electronic Show and Convention in Los Angeles, California, August 25–28, 1970, Los Angeles, Calif.: WESCON, →OCLC, page [unknown], column 1:
When the program is pressed into heavier duty it simply can't hold the entire list in memory, so someone else has to "open up the code" and perform major, instead of minor, surgery. This only increases the chances that the program will be bitbucketed rather than updated.1996, Lou Grinzo, Software Development, volume 4, San Francisco, Calif.: Miller Freeman, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 30, column 1:
1 more example
I think the only good form of email address munging is a plussed email address as I have in this message. While I am not automatically bitbucketing email addressed in this way, it does keep it from hitting my inbox and demanding my immediate attention.1997 September 30, Matthew N. Dodd, “Anti-spam e-mail addresses”, in comp.os.vms (Usenet):