Go
New
Find
Notify
Tools
Reply
  
Why so dead? Login/Join
 
Member
posted
There are a number of expressions with "dead" as an unlikely modifier:

dead certain
dead eye
dead giveaway
dead heat
dead last
dead serious
dead set
dead to rights
dead weight

Why so dead?

(Other expressions, where "dead" itself is modified, as in "dead as a door nail," do not seem anomalous in the same way.)


RJA
 
Posts: 488 | Location: Westport CTReply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
Picture of arnie
posted Hide Post
A lot of those idioms use 'dead' in the sense of 'certain, sure, exact'. I would think that use arose because if there's one thing we can be certain of, it's death (and taxes).


Build a man a fire and he's warm for a day. Set a man on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life.
 
Posts: 10940 | Location: LondonReply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
posted Hide Post
"Are you sure?"
"I'm tax serious!"

"How did you know, detective?"
"That clue was a tax giveaway."

"How did the race end?"
"It was a tax heat"


RJA
 
Posts: 488 | Location: Westport CTReply With QuoteReport This Post
<Proofreader>
posted
quote:
dead eye

Seeing that for the first time, a person might assume it meant "blind."
 
Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
posted Hide Post
Seeing Proof's take on that set me looking, and here's what turned up:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deadeye


RJA
 
Posts: 488 | Location: Westport CTReply With QuoteReport This Post
<Asa Lovejoy>
posted
In marksmanship, deadeye means one who is an excellent shot.

There's also dead reconing, the quick and the dead, and top/bottom dead center. I think it may well refer to the point of no motion in some cases.
 
Reply With QuoteReport This Post
<Proofreader>
posted
I fired "expert" in the army and everyone called me "Deadeye Dick." Over the years the nickname lost first the "eye", then the "Dead."
 
Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
Picture of Kalleh
posted Hide Post
I hear you, Robert. It is rather strange. At first I was going to say it means "serious," but that sure doesn't fit them all...for example, deadpan.
 
Posts: 24735 | Location: Chicago, USAReply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
Picture of arnie
posted Hide Post
"Deadpan" just uses the "dead" meaning; "pan" mean face of course.


Build a man a fire and he's warm for a day. Set a man on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life.
 
Posts: 10940 | Location: LondonReply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
Picture of Caterwauller
posted Hide Post
quote:
At first I was going to say it means "serious," but that sure doesn't fit them all...for example, deadpan.

I think the "serious" interpretation fits for deadpan. The deadpan face is a serious face in the presence of humor, right? Dead center is seriously in the center. Dead eye is a seriously good aim.

Or maybe it's really more like "exactly".


*******
"Happiness is not something ready made. It comes from your own actions.
~Dalai Lama
 
Posts: 5149 | Location: Columbus, OhioReply With QuoteReport This Post
  Powered by Social Strata  
 


Copyright © 2002-12