deadline：一條真的不能越過的線

For most of us, a deadline is just the time by which we have to finish something: an essay, a report, a tax return. Missing it might get us into trouble, but it won't kill us. The word's original meaning, however, was much darker. During the American Civil War in the 1860s, there was a large prison camp for captured soldiers in Andersonville, Georgia. The conditions were terrible. The camp was crowded, there was very little food, and thousands of prisoners died of disease. Inside the camp, about 19 feet (around six metres) from the outer wall, the guards marked out a line. It was known as the "dead line". Any prisoner who crossed it, or even touched it, could be shot without warning. The word appeared in official reports and newspapers after the war, when the people who ran the camp were put on trial. Over the following decades, the word began to be used in other ways. In the printing industry, a "deadline" was a line marked on the printing press, beyond which the text wouldn't print properly. Then, in the early 20th century, newspaper journalists started using it for the time by which a story had to be finished before the paper went to print. From there, the meaning spread to every kind of work. So when your boss tells you that a deadline is "absolutely final", remember where the word came from – and be grateful that today, the worst thing that can happen is a grumpy email.