Where did the term 'dead as a doornail' or 'dead as a doormouse' come from?

monkeycouzin

One possible explanation is at http://www.briggs13.fsnet.co.uk/book/d.htm Aug 31 02, 10:28 PM

Friar Tuck

Dead as a doornail is an expression most of us learned first in Dickens's A Christmas Carol. Actually, it's much older than that, having appeared in the fourteenth-century Vision of Piers Plowman and in Shakespeare's Henry IV. The dictionary defines a doornail as 'a large-headed nail, easily clinched, for nailing doors, through the battens.' Now the 'clinching' makes the nail 'dead'. It cannot be easily withdrawn. 'Dead-nailing' is a term most any carpenter is familiar with. It is a technique frequently used in constructing doors for log cabins, construction shanties and the like - and it antedates the ready availability of screws and more sophisticated fastening devices. http://pages.ca.inter.net/~jennyb/lasto4.html Sep 01 02, 1:21 AM

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1 Dead as a Doornail A serial killer is on the loose, Sookie loses something close to her, and she meets an exciting new man in book five. Harris, Charlaine Easy 10 Q gamemaster1967 Nov 24 07 537 plays 2 Back from the Dead This quiz will feature "GL", "Y&R", "AW", "DOOL" and "B&B" and will look at characters who come back from the "dead". Mixture: Soap Opera Tough 10 Q thelawyer Oct 12 04 1323 plays 3 From Dead to Worse Released early in May of 2008, book eight brought Sookie full circle. She discovered family previously unknown to her, reconnected with a man from her past, and acquired a new roommate. Harris, Charlaine Easy 10 Q gamemaster1967 May 28 08 468 plays