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by Andy Is Wicked Married to Penal Colony on June 18th, 2004

Andy Is Wicked Married to Penal Colony

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How did the term "red tape" become synonymous with bureaucracy?

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  • by Andy Is Wicked Married to Penal Colony on June 18th, 2004

    Andy Is Wicked Married to Penal Colony

    The term "red tape" was born from the middle-to-late English custom for lawyers and government officials to tie documents together with red tape. The term was first used metaphorically to describe official formality(as in bureaucracy) by Charles Dickens (1812-1870).

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