So why is a doornail dead anyway?
Long story, or I should say old story. Here are the two I know:
In the 1600s and 1700s, doors were almost literally just a few planks nailed together. To keep them from sagging, nails were driven through the door’s parts (horizontal rail, vertical stile) and then pounded over. Today it is called clench-nailing.
Bending the tip of the nail over by smashing it with a hammer means there’s no way it is coming out or wiggling loose.
It’s this clenching that renders the nail “dead” which was what was meant by the phrase back in Shakespeare’s time (and he is credited, by the way, with creating this phrase). Dead in this case refers to its motionlessness, not only because it stays put, but because you can’t pull it out.
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