Eighty-six or 86 is American Englishslang used to indicate that an item is no longer available, traditionally from a food or drinks establishment, or referring to a person or people who are not welcome on the premises. Its etymology is unknown, but seems to have been coined in the 1920s or 1930s.
The term has been more generally used to mean getting rid of someone or something. In the 1970s, its meaning expanded to refer to murder.[1]
Etymology and meanings
The term eighty-six was initially used in restaurants and bars according to most late twentieth-century American slang dictionaries.[2] It is often used in food and drink services to indicate that an item is no longer available or that a customer should be ejected.[2] Beyond this context, it is generally used with the meaning to 'get rid of' someone or something.[2]
According to the online Merriam-Webster dictionary, it means to "refuse to serve (a customer)", to "get rid of" or "throw out" someone or something.[3]
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, it may be used as a noun or verb.[4] As a noun, "In restaurants and bars, an expression indicating that the supply of an item is exhausted, or that a customer is not to be served; also, a customer to be refused service. Also transferred."[4] As a transitive verb derived from the noun, it means "to eject or debar (a person) from premises; to reject or abandon".[4] The OED gives examples of usage from 1933 to 1981.[4] For example, from The Candidate, in which the media adviser said to Robert Redford, "OK, now, for starters, we got to cut your hair and eighty-six the sideburns".[4]
According to Cassell's Dictionary of Slang, the meaning expanded during the 1970s to also mean "to kill, to murder; to execute judicially".[1][5] This usage was derived from the slang term used in restaurants.[6] Other slang dictionaries confirm this definition.[7][8][6]
The address of Chumley's—86 Bedford Street, West Village—is one of several origin stories of the term
There are many theories about the origin of the term but none are certain. It seems to have originated in the 1920s or 1930s.[citation needed] Possible origins include:
Part of the jargon used by soda jerks. Walter Winchell wrote about this in 1933, in his syndicated On Broadway column.[9] In this, the code 13 meant that a boss was around, 81 was a glass of water and 86 meant "all out of it".[10] Professor Harold Bentley of Columbia University studied soda jerk jargon and reported other numeric codes such as 95 for a customer leaving without paying.[11]
Author Jef Klein theorized that the bar Chumley's at 86 Bedford Street in the West Village of Lower Manhattan was the source. His book The History and Stories of the Best Bars of New York claims that the police would call Chumley's bar during Prohibition before making a raid and tell the bartender to "86" his customers, meaning that they should exit out the 86 Bedford Street door, while the police would come to the Pamela Court entrance.[12]
The 1995 song "86" by Green Day is about them being rejected from their punk rock community when they started achieving commercial success.[14][15]
The cover art for Eagles' 1980 live album Eagles Live features a stenciled version of the number on both sides. At the time, Eagles were on the verge of breaking up.
Numbuh 86 from the 2000s Cartoon Network show Codename: Kids Next Door gets her "numbuh" from this term due to her job of "decommissioning" Kids Next Door operatives who have reached the age of 13 and become teenagers.
The 2018 comedy crime film 86'd by Alan Palomo depicts five stories taking place at a 24-hour deli with a theme song composed under his Neon Indian moniker.[17]
Chumley's, one of the supposed origins of the term, was mentioned in the television series Elementary" (Season 3, Episode 14, "The Female of Species"). When Sherlock determines that a suspect evades police surveillance by using an old tunnel that was underneath the floor of the suspect's apartment, on the other side of that tunnel was the 86 Bedford St. door to Chumley's.
At one point in the musical Little Shop of Horrors, man-eating plant Audrey II says to its owner, "There must be someone you can 86, real quiet like, and get me some lunch!"
In the TV show The Bear, after the chef de cuisine of the eponymous restaurant fires a sous-chef, she shouts to the rest of the kitchen staff that this character has been 86'd.
In the 2009 drama film "Precious", Mary Jones (played by actress and comedienne Mo'Nique) says "86 that bitch" (or "get rid of her") to the titular character when she grows annoyed with Precious having a conversation with her teacher over the intercom of their apartment.
In the Japanese novel 86 -Eighty Six- by Asato Asato, the Eighty-Six are people whose rights were taken away and relegated into internment camps in the unofficial 86th District, treated as sub-human, and forced to fight in the war.
Electrical generation
The ANSI device numbers standard uses 86 for lock-out and master trip relays. Consistent with this standard, the wiring diagrams for Petersburg Generating Station sets all lock-out relays to be named "86" in its documentation, and operators describe a trip or lock-out event (for example, pump motor shutdown due to low voltage) as "86'd".
^ abHendrickson, Robert (2008). The Facts on File Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins. Facts on File. ISBN978-0-8160-6966-8. Eighty-six. To murder someone or put an end to something, [...] The expression derives from the restaurant waiter slang term eighty-six, which, among other things, means to "deny an unwelcome customer service" or to "cancel an order" ("Eighty-six the eggs!"), [...]
