Good to know you are not on death’s bed

This is another one overheard in a conversation. It is a congruent conflation of “at death’s door” and “on your death bed”, both describing someone very close to dying.

The origin of “on death’s door” goes back to the 1300s.

So! during the middle ages and beyond it was considered bad luck to take the corpse from a house using the main entrance. Seriously ill people or the recently departed were laid out in the front parlour. From here, there was a smaller door next to the front door that led into the street. It was through this which the dead person in their coffin could be passed.

Death’s door

These doors of the dead are easy to recognise as they are only half doors and were built with a stone ledge to support the coffin as it was removed from the house. The body could be balanced here while everything was made ready for their last journey.:

A big thank you to Martin Pietrucha for hearing this one and sending it in!