Eighty-six, eighty-sixed, 86, 86ed, or 86'd is American Englishslang for canceling something, killing someone, getting rid of something, ejecting someone, or refusing service.
Meaning
According to Merriam-Webster's Dictionary, "86" is a slang term that is used in the American popular culture as a transitive verb in the food service industry as a term to describe an item no longer being available on the menu. The dictionary suggests the term may be associated with the word "nix". "" is related to the word "Niks", which means "nothing" in the Dutch language. The term is part of restaurant slang, heard among restaurant workers in the 1930s, where 86 meant "we're all out of it." Walter Winchell published examples of similar restaurant slang in his newspaper column in 1933, which he presented as part of a "glossary of soda-fountain lingo".
Etymology
The most likely origin of the usage is that it is derived from the IEEE/ANSI device numbers in electrical power schematics that were developed before WWII. 86 represents a lock-out device, a master trip relay. Several other possible origins of the term 86 have been suggested, all dated before the 1950s.
86 Bedford Street: Author Jef Klein theorizes that the bar Chumley's at 86 Bedford Street in the West Village of Lower Manhattan was the source. Klein's 2006 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.
Documented 1944 use: According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the first verifiable use of 86 in the sense of "refuse service to" dates to a 1944 book about John Barrymore, a movie star of the 1920s famous for his acting and infamous for his drinking: "There was a bar in the Belasco building... but Barrymore was known in that cubby as an 'eighty-six'. An 'eighty-six', in the patois of western dispensers, means: 'Don't serve him.'"
Musician Tom Waits refers to 86 in electric schematic terms in "Eggs and Sausage" from the 1975 album Nighthawks at the Diner: "It's a cold caffeine in a nicotine cloud / Now the touch of your fingers lingers burning in my memory / I've been 86'd from your scheme".
The song "86" by Green Day is a reference to this term.
