 |
| ad speak |
| Deadline |
| The Real Meaning |
We asked a few staffers to explain the derivation of the word deadline. Which do you think is true?
- During a plague, or the Civil War, bodies were lined up on the "deadline."
- The flat line on an EKG is the "deadline" and the end of life.
- The destination of a military messenger(often a slave) - get it there or someone will die.
- Obits are one of the last things to add to an edition of a newspaper, so the "deadline" is the latest time that a story can get in.
While these are pretty believable when it comes to historical reference, the actual meaning is : "a line drawn around a prison, beyond which prisoners were liable to be shot." The Civil War guess was not far off the mark, the prison to which it referred was Andersonville, in Georgia. Later, newspaper editors used the term to mean a story was "killed" if it moved past the "deadline."
|
|
|
|
|
|
Semaphore is a premier full-service advertising, marketing, branding, public relations and Internet development firm.
Semaphore Inc.
828 Woodrow St
Columbia, SC, 29205
PH 803.799.6464
FX 803.254.5186
|
|
