Eighty-six is slang meaning “to throw out,” “to get rid of,” or “to refuse service to.” It comes from 1930s soda-counter slang meaning that an item was sold out. There is varying anecdotal evidence about why the term eighty-six was used, but the most common theory is that it is rhyming slang for nix.
Yeah 86 doesn’t really mean to get rid of something. At least in my time in the restaurant industry I never heard it used that way. It just means that we were out of something.
Never heard of it so I had to look
https://www.merriam-webster.com/wordplay/eighty-six-meaning-origin
Yeah 86 doesn’t really mean to get rid of something. At least in my time in the restaurant industry I never heard it used that way. It just means that we were out of something.
That was my experience as well. Though we would also refer to a banned customer as “86’d.”
Same meaning in my experience. The patron is kicked out. 86’d is the past tense. ‘they have been 86’d’
You no longer have any of that product, ingredient, or in this case customer.
In a workshop environment I’ve heard “86 it” to mean “get rid of it.” synonymous with “shitcan it.”
And that’s the joke behind Agent 86’s number on Get Smart. He’s a bad agent, and someone should have gotten rid of him.
There’s a timely reference. Get Smart: In Color.
I heard/read years ago “86ing” came from the old west referring to killing somebody. You’d take them “80 miles out” and bury them “6 feet deep.”