Thadrin wrote:86ed it? theres a phrase I've not heard before.
Click my WWW link and you'll see why it interests me...
From the Word-Detective:
The theory you've heard about "86" is certainly entertaining, but is unsubstantiated and probably not true. Fortunately, there are lots of other theories. Unfortunately, there's not much evidence supporting them, either. What we do know is that "86" first appeared as "kitchen slang" meaning "out of that item" in the 1930's, and fairly quickly came to mean "stop serving that customer" as well. Eventually, "86" spread to general usage, where it came to mean simply "dismiss" or "quash" ("The boss 86'ed my proposal for beer in the lunchroom").
The theory with the most logic behind it is that "86" began as rhyming slang code of the sort found in London's Cockney underworld of the 19th century. As "trouble and strife" meant "wife" in rhyming slang, "86" may have stood for "nix" -- "nix" meaning "nothing" or "to dismiss." How "86" then ended up in U.S. restaurants is a bit of a puzzle, but I'm afraid it's the best theory anyone has come up with so far.
and from Plateau Press:
eighty-six=nix
This verb meaning to eject or debar from premises, to reject or abandon was previously an expression used by waiters and bartenders indicating that the supply of an item was exhausted or that a customer was not to be served.
Morris Dictionary of Word and Phrase Origins says: [...] 86 may well have come from a number code created by [...] soda fountain clerks [...]. Originally, according to the American Thesaurus of Slang, it was a password used between clerks to indicate: 'We're all out of the item ordered.' The transition from this meaning [...] to the bartender's sense of 'Serve no more because of the shape he's in' is fairly obvious. The number code developed by soda clerks was very extensive [...]. A hissed '98' from one soda-popper to another indicated 'The assistant manager is prowling around. Watch out.' [...] And most cheerful warning of all, 87 1/2, meaning 'There's a good-looking girl out front!'
The earliest clear citation is from the February 1936 issue of American Speech, which gives the definition Eighty-six, item on the menu not on hand. The Random House Historical Dictionary of American Slang cites a comedy with a date range 1926-35 in which a waiter gives his number as 86.
AHD3 gives the etymology: Perhaps after Chumley's bar and restaurant at 86 Bedford Street in Greenwich Village, New York City.
But most other dictionaries, including MWCD10, suggest that eighty-six was rhyming slang for nix.
On its AOL message Board, Merriam-Webster Editorial Department writes: The etymology we give at 'eighty-six' is the one we'll stand by. It is our contention that the address at Chumley's is purely coincidence, and that the word was developed in rhyming slang, and originally used by restaurant workers so that the average customer didn't know what they were talking about. The earlier citations for 'eighty-six' [...] do not influence our decisions about the etymology [...]. In fact, if the first citation is from the early part of the range, it would tell against the Chumley's hypothesis, as Chumley's did not exist before 1927-29. Finally, because slang usually exists in the language for a number of years before it is recorded, the existence of a citation from the 1920s tells strongly against the Chumley's explanation.
There are a number of other theories about the origin of the word: that it originated in the heyday of the British merchant marine (the standard crew was 85, so that the 86th didn't get to go); that 86 was the number of the California (or Florida) law that forbade bartenders to serve the overly intoxicated; and that it refers to the number of tables (85) at the New York restaurant 21, and the table (86, in other words, no table) that the undesirable got.
There are more, but the Chumley's theory is the most popular.
Eighty-six is attested as a verb meaning get rid of from 1955 on. It was surely in reference to this meaning that Maxwell Smart, the hero of the 1960s sitcom Get Smart!, was Agent 86.
Galak
