Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 40, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 October 1893 — Door Nails. [ARTICLE]

Door Nails.

“As dead as a door-nail,” found in English texts over five hundred £ears, comes from the wooden pin or nail used to secure the door of a hut, which by constant use would become very smooth, hard, dry, and “dead.”