During the ongoing bathroom renovation there were a few minor glitches with the flooring. One small piece that went under the door casing was accidentally cut the wrong way. Oops! Usually, we are thrifty with excess scrap pieces that might be used but, in this case, to avoid any accidental usage of the piece, I said, “Eighty-six this one.”
Eighty-six means to eliminate or throw out. As a verb, the word started in the food industry. Restaurants, running out of a menu item, eighty-sixed it. In other words, servers informed customers that the particular item was no longer available. Many small restaurants or pubs may run into issues with their inventory. When there are not enough ingredients left to make a popular dish or drink, they'll have to eighty-six it. This prevents customers from ordering it and then getting upset.
In another situation, if a patron was drinking too much alcohol the establishment might eighty-six them, meaning they should no longer be served, they should be cut off. A club’s bouncer might eighty-six a customer, in other words eject or ban them. Eighty-six, as a code word, is still used in restaurants and bars, but it has entered the general language now. If you want to get rid of something, you can eighty-six it.
There is no sure explanation for the origin of the use of eighty-six. It is probable that the word was created as a rhyming slang for nix. Nix means to reject or veto something. We nixed the plan to change the vanity in the bathroom and just install a new sink and facet, as the vanity was still in good shape and well built. Nix is derived from the German word for nothing, nichts. In the late 1700s people would complain, “That was a whole day’s work for nix.” In the early 1900s nix was used as a verb to refuse to allow something. The courts nixed the merger between the two companies.
Eighty-six first appeared in English as a noun in the 1930s. It referred to an item at a soda fountain, or lunch counter, that had been sold out. Soda fountain slang includes shoot one, referring to a coke, draw one, referring to a coffee, shoot one in the red, meaning a cherry coke, and eighty-six, meaning all out of it. When the proprietor says the coffee is eighty-six, he means there isn’t anymore.
It was in the 1950s that the word shifted from a noun to a verb, especially used to refuse further bar service to inebriates. Among the more recent uses, eighty-six has acquired the sense of ‘to kill,’ both literally and figuratively. In military terms, a group of soldiers being ambushed and killed in action, have been eighty-sixed. It was a sad day when the bus crashed and some of the passengers were eighty-sixed from this world. In political terms, an amendment to a version of a legislative bill can be eighty-sixed by leaders of the party.
People have commented that Donald Trump was eighty-sixed from Twitter until Elon Musk took over ownership of the app. Sports team’s coaches are often eighty-sixed as a casualty of a long losing streak. Grocery chains often eighty-six specific items from their shelves if they do not sell well. Sometimes a Zoom meeting gets eighty-sixed because some of the participants have poor internet connections.
Hopefully, as the bathroom renovations continue and we move into replacing the flooring in the master bedroom, there won’t be too many wrong cuts with a need to eighty-six costly laminate.
John would like to know if anyone has a sincere interest in a relevant word that he could possibly research for an upcoming column. If so, please send your requests to [email protected] . Words will be selected according to relevance and research criteria. We cannot confirm that all words will be used.
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the position of this publication.
