Dead Reckoning

[Jesse Sheidlower]

> There's also "dead red", "dead spit", "dead to rights", etc., all
> apparently corresponding to AHD4's sense 12c, 'exact' and possibly
> its cousins:
>
> 12a. Sudden; abrupt: a dead stop.
> b. Complete; utter: dead silence.
> c. Exact; unerring. the dead center of a target.
>
> I'm not sure how this sense or bundle of senses derives from the
> standard (= 'no longer alive') one, although speculation is rife.
> Anyone?

I had always thought that these various "dead"s were in the broad
sense 'absolute; complete', in reference to death being the final
step in, uh, life. There's a lot of history, both linguistic and
otherwise, behind this viewpoint.

Jesse Sheidlower