Is this an 1800's British expression? Saying "of last importance" when you actually mean "most important."

[John_DiFool]

Active thread on just this (general) topic:

Sayings, idioms, and acronyms which seem to indicate the OPPOSITE of what is intended

On another site I was taken a bit aback yesterday when I read that a political ad had been “dropped”–so I immediately wondered who canceled it and why-was it DFT-enabled censorship at work again? A cowardly news service bending over backwards to not embarrass or anger him or his cronies? As I scanned the text of the article, I couldn’t even find any mention of it being stopped much less why, as it just went on about the ad’s content. I then realized that “drop” has somehow come to mean “release…