Deadline

I F**king hate my endless workloadsss! Bloody deadlines! Period.

The word deadline first appeared as an American coinage that referred to the line around a military prison beyond which soldiers were authorized to shoot escaping prisoners.

According to Lossing's History of the Civil War (1868):

"Seventeen feet from the inner stockade was the 'dead-line', over which no man could pass and live."

This use is also found in Congressional records as early as 1864:

"The 'dead line', beyond which the prisoners are not allowed to pass."