![]() Apparently, when a story/item was sent in error or should be discarded, the number 86 was used.Įxplanations even stretch as far as the electrical industry, where devices had numbers-a 27 was an undervoltage relay, 43 was a selector switch, and an 86 was a trip and lockout device, so an 86 operation means the affected piece of equipment was out of service.Īnother theory says that the term originated with the number codes used by soda jerks: 86 was the code indicating they were out of an item. A “30” indicated a completed story, for example. To expedite this process, coded numbers were used for common actions. Perhaps it was a holdover from the days when news was delivered via teletype. There are those who claim the term refers to 86 inches, the standard depth of a grave in the U.S. The mythical 86 filter would therefore be totally dark, and completely negate the image being photographed, 86 it. Or was it a filmmaker’s term? Light filters are categorized by number, the darkest filter being a #85. The term morphed into shorthand for being out of any item. Number 86 on their menu was a steak, the most popular item on the menu and one that often sold out. Others say it originated at Delmonico's Restaurant in NYC. ![]() Supposedly, when officers in other precincts made repeated mistakes, the threat of being sent out to the mean and shorthanded 86th was enough to make them straighten up. Some say it started in the 86th precinct of the NYC police dept. One of the elevated trains in New York terminated at 86th Street, at which point the conductor would toss any drunks who had passed out on board. The bartenders would tell such patrons that sorry, they’d been 86’d. The deck was on the 86th floor.Īpparently, there was a local code in New York, Code 86, that made it a crime for bartenders to serve drunken patrons. In the days before a safety fence was installed on the observation deck of the Empire State Building, people would commit suicide by jumping from it. When the heat showed up, guests were known to 86 it, or remove themselves from the premises immediately. There was a speakeasy bar at 86 Bedford Street in Greenwich Village called Chumley's, with no address on the door and several hidden exits. A pinch of that in a rowdy cowboy’s drink apparently would have him heading for the door. The term may have come from Old Eighty-Six, a popular shaving powder in the old days. When a patron would get too drunk, the barkeep would serve him a less potent, 86 proof liquor, thereby 86’ing him. Or it may have originally been a bartender’s term. Rotary phones had T on the 8 key and O on the 6 key, so to throw out (TO) something was to 86 it. ![]() The term was derived from military shorthand. The United States also has a Uniform Code of Military Justice that has an Article 86: Absence Without Leave, a.k.a AWOL. The term originated during the Korean war, a reference to the F-86 fighter jet when an F-86 shot down an enemy plane, it was 86’d. ![]() The term originated in the soup kitchens of the Great Depression, where the standard pot held 85 cups of soup, so the 86th person was out of luck. Then I did some research and realized the genesis of the term isn’t clear at all.įirst, another soup pot reference. After that number of ladles, the soup was 86’d. When I first asked that same question, I was told this: that the standard height of a door frame was 8 feet 6 inches, and when an obnoxious guest was shown the door, he was “86’d.” That pacified me until I later heard that it took 86 ladles to empty a pot of soup on an Army mess line. LouisĮditor's Note: This article was updated from an earlier version. Where did that term originate?-Jason R., St. We’ve all heard the term “86,” indicating that a restaurant is out of something.
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