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Question
#3373. nellybelle
asks:
Where did the term 'eighty-six it' originate?
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McGruff
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Websters online says it is probably rhyming slang for 'nix.' eighty-six or 86 (verb transitive) (probably rhyming slang for nix) First appeared 1967 slang : to refuse to serve (a customer); also : to get rid of : THROW OUT
 http://faqs.cs.uu.nl/na-dir/alt-usage-english-faq.html
[Link added Feb. 21, 2008 by Zbeckabee]
Jun 21 00, 3:33 PM
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zbeckabee 
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Another theory, though McGruff's info is more widely accepted:
Quote: The term was current in the late 1930s when I was a teenager in New York City. It was supposed to have derived from the street-car line that operated on First Avenue on the East Side of Manhattan. The line ran from 14th Street to 86th Street (both major east-west streets). As a north-bound car came to the last stop, the motorman would call out (usually in a rich brogue), 'Eighty-six! End of the line! All out!'
http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-eig1.htm
Feb 21 08, 8:54 PM
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