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In its dead reckoning article, the OED refers to the following part of the dead entry as etymology:
V. Unrelieved, unbroken; absolute; complete; utmost.
These senses arise out of several of the preceding (cf. A. 18, A. 22, A. 24); and in some cases there is a blending of two or more notions.
25. Thesaurus »
a. Of a wall, level, etc.: Unbroken, unrelieved by breaks or interruptions; absolutely uniform and continuous.
In dead level there is at once the sense ‘unrelieved, unvaried, monotonous', and that of ‘having no fall or inclination in any direction, absolute'.1597 Bacon Of Coulers Good & Euill (Arb.) 143 It seemeth‥a shorter distance‥if it be all dead and continued, then if it haue trees or buildings or any other markes whereby the eye may deuide it.
1672 Dryden Conquest Granada ii. iii. i. 106 By the dead wall, you, Abdelmelech, wind.
1742 Pope New Dunciad 258 We bring to one dead level ev'ry mind.
1860 J. Tyndall Glaciers of Alps i. xxii. 153, I become more weary upon a dead level‥than on a steep mountain side.
1868 E. Yates Rock Ahead ii. i, On every hoarding and dead-wall.
1887 J. R. Lowell Democracy 19 To reduce all mankind to a dead level of mediocrity.
1597—1887(Hide quotations)
Thesaurus »
†b. Flat. Obs.1782 Conway Specif. Patent 1310 2 The oven‥has a dead or flat hearth.
1782—1782(Hide quotations)
Emmett
Where I get frustrated is that a dictionary citing usages that have the meaning under discussion does nothing to show how it ties, if at all, to other meanings. Does dead as in dead ahead or dead level in fact come from dead meaning deceased or without life, or does it come from an unrelated source, as a different word with the same spelling? Or did these senses separate so early that we have no record?
Peter
Similarly to Peter, I'd always assumed it came from the idea that something dead had an entirely inert quality that made it incapable of turning, of changing course in any way. But that was probably just my failing to question an assumption that made sense in my head.
By the way, the American Heritage Dictionary of Idiom says that dead has had an alternate meaning straight since the 19th century, though the entry did not offer any opinions about or research into how that different meaning came to be.
Martha Barnette
Grant Barrett
Grant Barrett
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