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From where comes the restaurant term "86" which stands for out of stock?

Question #38507. Asked by Hamlet..
Last updated Aug 21 2016.

Related Trivia Topics: Food & Drink  
Brainyblonde
Answer has 9 votes
Brainyblonde
23 year member
1455 replies

Answer has 9 votes.
Answer: Its original origin can't precisely be identified.

The term eighty-six is restaurant/bar slang for an item that is out of stock or a customer that is to be denied service. The origin is obscure. The earliest clear reference is to the February 1936 issue of American Speech; it was undoubtedly in existence before that. Lighter cites a 1926-35 comedy where a waiter gives his number as eighty-six.

The OED2 postulates that it may be rhyming slang for nix, and most authorities tend to go with this explanation although there is
no strong evidence to support it. It is plausible as restaurant crews frequently employ codes such as this.

American Heritage suggests that it may derive from Chumley's Bar in Greenwich Village, which is located at 86 Bedford Street.

There are other explanations at these sites as well.

link http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=86

Response last updated by Terry on Aug 21 2016.
Sep 07 2003, 2:00 PM
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Terry star
Answer has 10 votes
Currently Best Answer
Terry star
Moderator
24 year member
333 replies avatar

Answer has 10 votes.

Currently voted the best answer.
Indeed, there are a lot of possibilities for the origin.

1933:

The most widely accepted theory of the term's origin states it derives from a code supposedly used in some restaurants[5] in the 1930s, wherein 86 was a shortform among restaurant workers for 'We're all out of it.' Snippets of said code were published in newsman Walter Winchell's column in 1933, where it was presented as part of a "glossary of soda-fountain lingo."


Wiki suggests any of the following pre-1950 things could also possibly be the origin:

- United States Navy decommissioning
- 86 Bedford Street police story
- From a typer of camera filter
- From Electrician slang

link https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/86_(term)

Aug 21 2016, 8:20 PM
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