Red Line

[mw]

Dict Amer Slang traces  verb use from red line WWII (To cross a soldier's name off
the payroll for some wrongdoing) through 1973 (denial of loans based on race), to
established use in the 1990s (achieve maximum speed, ie had the car redlined), and
computer use, a software program that does redlining, notes and commentaries.

thin red line may be a red herring in this instance

Quark out
Lower Umpqua Addictive Conundrum Institute
(no red tape here)

"James A. Landau" wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "James A. Landau" <JJJRLandau at AOL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Red Line
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> In a message dated 3/26/2003 4:04:38 PM Eastern Standard Time,
> dave at WILTON.NET writes:
>
> > Use of "red line" to mean a figurative trip wire:
>
> Possibly from automobiles, many of which have a red line on the speedometer
> showing a speed you are not to exceed?  On airplanes every speedometer has
> such a red line at a speed known as the "VNE" ("never-exceed velocity") plus
> a yellow arc (caution range), green arc (normal operating speed range), and
> white arc (speed range for operating with fully extended flaps).
>
> Also there is the phrase "the thin red line", referring if I remember
> correctly to the British Army in its Imperial days (that is, the days before
> modern weaponry made riflemen hug the ground and wear camouflage).
>
> Much less likely that it is from civil rights, referring to the practice of
> some lenders of not providing mortgages for black neighborhoods, and I
> suppose also applied to other discriminatory practices.
>
>             James A. Landau
>             systems engineer
>             FAA Technical Center (ACB-510/BCI)
>             Atlantic City Int'l Airport   NJ   08405   USA