Post by occamPost by Tony CooperPost by occamI heard the expression "It's dead pretty" on a radio program (BrE). Odd
expression, bordering on the macabre? I cannot even imaging how it came
into use. "Dead boring" makes sense. Ditto "Dead silent". But pretty?
That "dead" is the "dead on" dead meaning "very accurate" or "on
target". It is not the "dead" as in no longer alive.
Hmm. I've been looking at other similar expressions and I concluded it
came from 'drop dead'
I think not. "Dead" as an intensifier far predates adjectival and
adverbial senses of "drop dead".
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Dead (adv)
[...]
2.
a. Hence more generally: Utterly, entirely, absolutely, quite. (Cf. A.
31a) Esp. dead broke (see broke adj. 3a), dead certain, dead easy, dead
frozen sure, dead level, dead right, dead sure. Now colloq.
?1589 T. Nashe Almond for Parrat sig. 5v, Oh he is olde dogge at
expounding, and deade sure at a Catechisme.
1740 S. Richardson Pamela I. xxxi. 146 A dead, spiteful, grey,
goggling Eye.
1826 B. Disraeli Vivian Grey I. i. v. 34 He cut the Doctor quite
dead at Greek to-day.
1845 Cultivator 2 92 As I..come out upon the high prairie with the
wind ‘dead ahead’.
1849 G. C. Greenwell Gloss. Terms Coal Trade Northumberland & Durham
3, The small coals..are..passed over a second skreen, [to separate]
the nuts..and the dead small, or duff, which falls through the skreen.
1857 R. Tomes Americans in Japan ix. 196 Before the rice is ‘dead ripe’.
1860 W. F. Hook Lives Archbps. (1862) II. ii. 93 Only one
horse..which soon became dead lame.
a1861 T. Winthrop Canoe & Saddle (1883) 280 Prairieland lies dead
level for leagues.
1871 J. Hay Pike County Ballads 10 He'd seen his duty a dead-sure thing.
1883 ‘M. Twain’ Life on Mississippi xxxix. 414 We'll cotton-seed his
salad for him..that's a dead-certain thing.
1885 ‘F. Anstey’ Tinted Venus 59, I saw directly that I'd mashed
her—she was gone, dead gone, sir.
1894 in E. R. Lamson Yale Wit & Humor 47 (caption) A Dead Easy
Queen Caught His Eye.
1895 J. L. Williams Princeton Stories 166 You're dead right in
saying he's too young.
1897 Scribner's Mag. Sept. 297/2, I was dead frozen sure that I had
a sure tip on a wheat deal.
1903 A. Bennett Let. 24 Aug. (1960) 96 She is dead right all through.
1904 W. H. Smith Promoters v. 92 For a dead easy mark in a business
way, commend me to a preacher.
1906 Springfield Weekly Republican 12 July 3 His scouts..report that
Moran [a candidate for governor] has a dead-sure thing.
1908 G. H. Lorimer Jack Spurlock i. 19 It was like having one of
those mushy girls dead gone on you.
1922 D. H. Lawrence Aaron's Rod vii. 71 She liked him because of his
dead-level indifference to his surroundings.
1923 ‘B. M. Bower’ Parowan Bonanza i. 15 ‘You're dead right, old
girl,’ Bill agreed.
1930 ‘J. J. Connington’ Two Tickets Puzzle xiv. 222 There's no great
trouble in guessing who's mixed up in the business—that's dead easy.
1930 W. Gibson Hazards 12 He could always plane the deal Dead-level;
ay, his work was always true.
1959 J. Braine Vodi i. 22 You're mardy. You're dead mardy.
1961 A. Simpson & R. Galton Four Hancock Scripts 43/2 Tony and Sid
are dead bored.
1963 D. Lessing Man & Two Women 140 ‘That's right,’ said Charlie,
‘you're dead right.’
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Post by occamrather than 'dead on'. In the expression "she's
drop dead gorgeous" 'dead' refers to the observer's tendency to
faint/die at the sight of some breathtaking beauty, scenery and so on. I
may be wrong.