Editor's comment: Is it safe to cross the personal injury line?
Historians argue over the origin of the word deadline but several online etymology dictionaries claim the term might have been influenced by use of the word in 1864 to mean the “do-not-cross line” in Civil War prisons in the US.
This line around the inner stockade or enclosing wall of a prison – in many cases an imaginary line – was where prison guards were encouraged to fire upon and kill any inmates who touched, fell upon
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