86 etymology

[pynchonoid]

AWADmail Issue 90
                        Jun 10, 2003

      A Compendium of Feedback on the Words in
A.Word.A.Day
     and Other Interesting Tidbits about Words and
Languages

--------------------------------
From: Anu Garg (anu at wordsmith.org)
Subject: 86
Refer: http://wordsmith.org/words/eighty-six.html

Many readers shared their favorite stories about the
origin of the term
eighty-six. We don't yet have a definitive proof to
confirm a single theory.
However, the most popular one, Chumley's bar at 86
Bedford St., is not the
right one based on the evidence that the term was in
existence before the
bar came into being. Here are some selections.

I was told by a bartender friend that the derivation
of "eight-six'd" comes
from the Old West. Alcohol was once allowed to be 100
proof in strength, and
when a regular was known to get disorderly, he was
served with spirits of a
slightly lower 86 proof. Hence he was "86'd."
-Marc Olmsted (makemarc at aol.com)

New Yorkers know a different origin for this phrase.
There's a
bar/restaurant called Chumley's, at 86 Bedford Street
in Greenwich Village
http://chumleys.citysearch.com. The bar has a
formidable history as a literary
hangout, but more importantly, as a speakeasy. The
place is known for having
no identifying markings on the door, and at least four
or five hidden
passageways that led to exits, some into adjacent
apartment buildings. To
"86-it" meant to simply vanish from a "dining"
establishment. It's not hard
to imagine how that evolved to mean "take a special
off the menu", or any of
the other interpretations it's given today.
-David G. Imber (imber at maniform.com)

You missed the ideogram here. I think the origin of
the phrase comes from
the way the numbers look. The 8 is kicking the 6 out
of a bar.
-Bill Wargo (bwargo at vdh.state.vt.us)

I have heard that the origin of this term
"eighty-sixed" was referring to
the standard height of a door frame. In other words to
be thrown out the
door, you are 86'ed.
-Leslie Zenz (lzenz at agr.wa.gov)

The term 86 or 86'd has its origins in NYC, where
people committed suicide
by jumping from the observation deck of The Empire
State Building on the
86th floor before a safety fence was installed.
-Billy Rene (billyrene7 at aol.com)

I heard this term came from a shaving powder (Old
Eighty-six) from the
wild west days. Just a pinch in the rambunctious
cowboy's drink would
have him heading for the outhouse and out of the
saloon.
-beauregaardhooligan at netzero.net

As an apprentice filmmaker I learned to use
transparent light filters to
change the quality or colour of the image that I was
filming. These filters
are categorized by number, the highest number being an
85 filter. The
mythical 86 filter would be totally opaque, not
letting through any light at
all. Hence, I learned, the origin of the verb 86, to
get rid of something in
the way an 86 filter would completely delete any image
in front of the camera
from striking the film.
-Fred Harris (fred.harris at utoronto.ca)

While working as a waitress, I was told that "86"
referred to the number of
ladles it took to empty an army pot of soup. After 86
servings, the pot was
empty.
-Amy LaPrade (amy.laprade at piperrudnick.com)

The United States military has what is called the
Uniform Code of Military
Justice. Article 86 of the UCMJ is Absence Without
Leave. (commonly called
AWOL).
-Richard Jefferson, U.S. Navy Seabees [Retired]
(rjeffers at srrc.ars.usda.gov)

I heard that this expression originated in New York
City back in the days
when there was a saloon on every street corner and
elevated trains ran along
the lengths of the major avenues. One of the lines
terminated at 86th Street,
at which point the conductors would eject the drunks
who had fallen asleep
on the train. Sometimes the drunks were belligerent.
The conductors took
to referring to them as "86's."
-Tom Fedorek (tom.fedorek at citigategis.com)

It is a holdover from journalism days when news was
delivered over the
teletype. To expedite the process, sometimes coded
numbers were sent for
common phrases and actions. For example, when a story
was complete, the
number "30" was sent. To this day, copy editors in
newspapers still use
the number 30 at the bottom center of the last page of
a story. Also, (I've
been told), when an item was sent in error or to be
discarded, the number
"86" was used.
-Mark Gadbois (mgadbois at hotmail.com)

I had thought that this term had been derived from
military shorthand and
referred to the phone dial (when it had letters on
it). The T for Throw is on
the 8 key and the O for Out is on the 6 key - hence
something tossed is 86'd.
-Morgan Curtis S (morgan.cs at mellon.com)

I was always under the impression that the expression
was nautical. Something
like "86 leagues or feet", with the idea that putting
something that deep
down in the ocean was discarding it,
-Teresa Bergfeld (bergfeld at agctbb.org)

So far my working hypothesis was, that maybe it
started as a misunderstanding
and derives from "deep six" as in burried six feet
under ground, i.e. dead.
-Ronald C.F. Antony (rcfa at cubiculum.com)

I believe this originated during the Korean war.
"Eighty-six" refers to the
jet fighter North American F-86 Saber. Whenever an
F-86 shot down a airplane
during a dogfight it had been "eighty-sixed".
-Sandy Megas (arrmegas at prodigy.net)

I read several years ago that "86" refers to the
standard depth of a grave in
the U.S.: 7 feet, 2 inches; thus to "eighty-six"
something is to "bury it".
-Doris Ivie (divie at pstcc.edu)

Folk lore has it that local code #86 in New York makes
it illegal for bar
keepers to serve drunken patrons. The bartender says
to such a patron,
"You're eighty sixed", and thus we get this phrase.
-Tudi Baskay (tudibaskay at aol.com)

I am a career restaurant worker and the story I heard
about the origin of the
term "86'd" started with the 86th precinct of the NY
police dept. It seems
that when officers in other precincts fell out of
favor with their superiors
the threat of being sent to the rough and overworked
86th was enough to make
them tow the line. It was in conversation at the local
restaurant among the
officers that the wait staff began to pick it up and
cycled to other
restaurants and other industries.
-Shawn Chriest (climbers07 at aol.com)

In the electrical industry devices have numbers -- a
27 is an undervoltage
relay, 43 is a selector switch, etc. -- and an 86 is a
trip and lockout
device. An 86 operation means the affected piece of
equipment is "locked
out."
-Lane Dexter (madison_6 at hotmail.com)

I recall a Johnny Hart B.C. comic strip a few years
back that made an
interesting observation on the name of the "abortion
pill" RU-486. The folks
at Roussel Uclef (the "RU") will tell you that the
name/number was just one
more in a series of compounds, etc. Mr. Hart however
dissected "RU-486" into
a darkly appropriate phrase: "Are you for
'eighty-sixing' the kid?"
Peter Gravely (pgravely at snyderpaper.com)



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