From October 30, 2012:
I've never considered the idiom before. My guess is that they used to inform people of death warrants by tacking said warrant onto the front door with a nail. If it was the only reason for someone nailing a door, the sound of the thuds could easily become a symbol for death.
Don't really want to look it up to make sure though. That just seems the most practical reason to me. Then again, the saying could just come from a time when people considered door nails as the irrefutable object of lifelessness, and thus someone dead could be said to be as dead as a door nail is dead.
- Anya
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