Unnumbered source etymology
Original entry ↗To cancel an order for food. · To temporarily remove an item from the menu. · To throw out; to discard. · To deny service to.
Uncertain but most probably from soda jerk slang from the 1920s for 'all out', referring to an item on the menu not being available. The earliest mention in print is from 1933. The OED suggests possible rhyming slang for nix. Another possibility is that it is rhyming slang for deep six. Cassell's Dictionary of Slang claims that the term comes from the digging of a standard grave, which is 2.5 feet wide by 8 feet long by 6 feet deep. Other, more elaborate theories include Delmonico's Restaurant in New York City, as item #86 on their menu, the famous Delmonico steak, is supposed to have run out often in the 19th century. Another theory is that this term came from the New York speakeasy Chumley’s, which was a hotspot in the 1920s. Chumley’s is hidden inside a West Village building which has two entrances: a well-set-back main entrance on Barrow Street and an obscure back-door exit on 86 Bedford Street. When police were sighted approaching the main entrance, the barkeeps supposedly yelled ‘86 it!’ to signal the patrons to hide the liquor and exit quickly through the back door. The term became standard in the service industry for ejecting someone by the 1940s.
This page abbreviates 1 auxiliary source items. The etymology narrative is not shortened. Omission counts are available in the audit fields below; consult the original for complete auxiliary material.
Inspect preserved source fields
Raw extraction fields are retained for auditing. Their order does not establish ancestry.
{
"templates": [
{
"name": "unc",
"args": {
"1": "en"
},
"expansion": "Uncertain"
},
{
"name": "ref",
"args": {
"1": "<span class=\"cited-source\">Zimmer, Ben (23 June 2018), “A Restaurant ‘Eighty-Sixed’ Sarah Huckabee Sanders. What Does That Mean?”, in <cite>The Atlantic</cite>, retrieved 17 May 2025</span>"
},
"expansion": ""
},
{
"name": "ref",
"args": {
"1": "<span class=\"cited-source\">Ramirez, Maria (17 May 2025), “Comey is under investigation for posting ‘86’ in reference to Trump. What does it mean?”, in <cite>PBS NewsHour</cite>, PBS, retrieved 17 May 2025</span>"
},
"expansion": ""
}
],
"links": [
[
"soda jerk",
"soda jerk"
],
[
"rhyming slang",
"rhyming slang"
],
[
"nix",
"nix#English"
],
[
"deep six",
"deep six#English"
],
[
"Delmonico steak",
"Delmonico steak"
],
[
"speakeasy",
"speakeasy"
],
[
"police",
"police"
],
[
"barkeeps",
"barkeeps"
],
[
"liquor",
"liquor"
],
[
"service industry",
"service industry"
]
],
"references": [],
"descendants": [],
"lexical": [
{
"pos": "verb",
"glosses": [
"To cancel an order for food.",
"To temporarily remove an item from the menu.",
"To throw out; to discard.",
"To deny service to."
],
"tags": [
"US",
"informal",
"transitive"
],
"recordId": "d226dee37e138d31916120094bcd8dee26d83233acf5c321481408e8c2303d60",
"rawRecordSha256": "ebaee05e6c5f3fcf4e67d287fa42ecb8bfcb2de6792f6d885656760fee4bf22a",
"sourceRecordOrdinal": 154275
}
],
"omittedAuxiliaryFields": {
"templates": 0,
"links": 0,
"references": 0,
"descendants": 0,
"lexicalRecords": 0,
"lexicalSenses": 1,
"glosses": 0
}
}