The term “86” has woven its way into American slang, typically meaning to get rid of or refuse service. And while its exact origins are murky, its use dates back to the 1930s.
What does '86' mean?
According to Merriam-Webster, to “86” someone means to throw them out, get rid of them or refuse them service. Although not confirmed, the dictionary notes it’s likely a rhyme for the word “nix.”
What are its origins?
Merriam-Webster notes that the slang term dates to the 1930s when soda jerks used “86” as a noun for something sold out. “When a soda popper says the tuna fish salad is eighty-six, he means there isn’t any more,” the New York Herald Tribune reported in 1941.
“Typically cooks in the kitchen would place an 86 on a blackboard next to an entree to signal the wait staff that they should not accept any more orders for that item,” the late American folklorist Alan Dundes wrote in An Uplifting Origin of 86.
How did the meaning of '86' evolve?
By the 1950s, according to Merriam-Webster, “86” became a verb, commonly referring to tossing drunken customers out of bars.
Dundes points to a biography on actor John Barrymore, published in 1944, as an early example of “86” referring to refusing service. “Barrymore was supposedly known as an eighty-six,” he writes. In other words: “Don’t serve him.”
Although Merriam-Webster notes some equate “86” with “to kill,” it adds this use is infrequent: “We do not enter this sense, due to its relative recency and sparseness of use.”
The term “86” can also mean “get rid of someone or something,” according to Dundes.
“Representative illustrations include a line in the 1972 movie The Candidate when Robert Redford's character is told by a media adviser, 'OK, now, for starters, we got to cut your hair and eighty-six the sideburns' and a note in Sports Illustrated in 1991 titled 'Boo-Boo by the Bay: The 49ers Should Eighty-Six Their New Logo’,” he writes.
What are other theories on its origin?
Unconfirmed theories for the term "86" abound. Here are a few of the more popular origin stories, according to St. Louis Magazine columnist George Mahe:
Bartenders warned patrons of Prohibition raids at New York speakeasy Chumley’s, located at 86 Bedford St., with “86”: a warning to get the customers out via the bar’s 86 Bedford St. door to avoid the police arriving at a different entrance.
Article 86 of the U.S. Uniform Code of Military Justice concerns Absence Without Leave, or AWOL.
Great Depression soup kitchen pots served 85 people. “So the 86th person was out of luck.
“If anyone asks you where the term 86 originated, tell them what I tell people: I don’t really know, but there are about 86 theories,” Mahe writes.
