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The Bloody History of 'Deadline'

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Re: The Bloody History of 'Deadline'

#11

Post by jacobolus »

vharuck wrote: post #5

I was curious about this line in one of the letters cited: >Gutapercha ring making is all the go now by the men and some of them are making really beautiful ones. So wikipediaed gutapercha, which turns out to be a tree. The same name is used for a latex made from the tree. This material made undersea cables possible in the early days. But I was curious: why rings? Well, it might have something to do with the caning o…

Apparently in POW camps the confederate prisoners made gutta-percha rings (also crosses, etc.) out of gutta-percha buttons, as a way to earn some money. https://archive.org/details/immortalcaptives00josl/?q=gutta-...

Seems like gutta-percha rings became a confederate symbol. https://esploro.libs.uga.edu/esploro/outputs/994936595870295... https://books.google.com/books?id=PUZyui6tt98C&dq=Gutta-perc...

Re: The Bloody History of 'Deadline'

#13

Post by makeitdouble »

runoisenze wrote: post #6

For software projects, I prefer to call them “lifelines” :-)

Honestly I like the"dead" part in deadline.

When someone comes with one, the first question should be "who's dead after that line ?". If no one actually dies, it's not a deadline, just a target release date.

Re: The Bloody History of 'Deadline'

#14

Post by wavemode »

ThisIsAWhatWhat wrote: post #3

"The guard lines are drawn in; making our play grounds much smaller and cutting us off from our best well of water, this is done for no other purpose under the sun but to interfere with our only enjoyment and to grind us to the lowest depth of subjugation." This was written by an imprisoned soldier. Who thinks that a depressing number of college students today would be incapable of this writing quality?

"quality" is subjective. The passage comes across as poetic to us today, sure, but that's just how people spoke in that region and time period.

Some future civilization may read our writings today and similarly marvel at its archaic style.

Re: The Bloody History of 'Deadline'

#15

Post by mr_toad »

jacobolus wrote: post #4

So how did the 'due date' meaning arise? Was it related in some way to the prison line? Edit: according to wiktionary, in the 20th century it was used in the printing industry for a line on the bed of a press beyond which text wouldn't print, then by analogy as a time limit after which a newspaper story wouldn't make it into the paper. It's not clear if this sense was inspired by the Civil War prison dead lines, or m…

I would guess it comes from contracts, being the date on which payment is due (owed). Due, or Dues has a historical meaning as a debt or obligation.

Re: The Bloody History of 'Deadline'

#16

Post by falcor84 »

makeitdouble wrote: post #13
runoisenze wrote: post #6

For software projects, I prefer to call them “lifelines” :-)

Honestly I like the"dead" part in deadline. When someone comes with one, the first question should be "who's dead after that line ?". If no one actually dies, it's not a deadline, just a target release date.

Shouldn't that be just "will someone actually die" rather than "who"? Or is it that your commitment to the deadline would really depend on the identity of the particular individual who's about to die?

Re: The Bloody History of 'Deadline'

#19

Post by pona-a »

wavemode wrote: post #14
ThisIsAWhatWhat wrote: post #3

"The guard lines are drawn in; making our play grounds much smaller and cutting us off from our best well of water, this is done for no other purpose under the sun but to interfere with our only enjoyment and to grind us to the lowest depth of subjugation." This was written by an imprisoned soldier. Who thinks that a depressing number of college students today would be incapable of this writing quality?

"quality" is subjective. The passage comes across as poetic to us today, sure, but that's just how people spoke in that region and time period. Some future civilization may read our writings today and similarly marvel at its archaic style.

Yes, but I believe there are some more objective traits that define good writing beyond just style. It's the use of metaphor, more precise choice of wording, overall speaking less in logical predicates and more so in powerful impressions.

I heavily doubt one would read an old instruction manual or an employee handbook with overflowing glee just because it used an archaic style, at best maybe briefly consider the novelty of a few out-of-use words before moving on.

Re: The Bloody History of 'Deadline'

#20

Post by jacobolus »

mr_toad wrote: post #15
jacobolus wrote: post #4

So how did the 'due date' meaning arise? Was it related in some way to the prison line? Edit: according to wiktionary, in the 20th century it was used in the printing industry for a line on the bed of a press beyond which text wouldn't print, then by analogy as a time limit after which a newspaper story wouldn't make it into the paper. It's not clear if this sense was inspired by the Civil War prison dead lines, or m…

I would guess it comes from contracts, being the date on which payment is due (owed). Due, or Dues has a historical meaning as a debt or obligation.

Note: the discussion is the etymology/usage of "deadline", not "due date".
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