whence "86'd"? i first came across the term when i was waitressing; the manager would scribble on a board that a particular dish had been 86'd when they ran out of it. i suppose that would've been right around 1987, so it made perfect sense... but i still hear it. why'd that year stick??
The term came into use as one of an entire code which arose in US soda fountains and lunch counters in the 1920s. Orders were taken without checks and yelled to the cook, and the code developed to speed messages to the cooks while obscuring meanings from the customers.
Numbers were used frequently. Some were:
19 Banana split
33 Cherry cola
51 Hot chocolate
55 Root beer
80, 81 .... Glass of water
For the most common drinks, like water and milk, the first digit signified the beverage and the second the number of glasses, so that "84" meant "four glasses of water."
Some numbers signified things other than food orders:
13 The boss is here; don't mess around
95 A customer is leaving without paying
99 The boss wants to see you
86, perhaps chosen because the 6 rhymes with "nix," meant "no." Usually, the cook would call it out to tell the servers that they were out of a given item, but it was also used by the servers to indicate that a customer should not be served (because, for example, he was a deadbeat).
Most of the codes became obsolete with the customary use of written checks, but 86 broadened in applicability, to include ejecting a customer and as a generic term for killing or annihilating something.
Other diner codes: "burn the British" for English muffins; "Mike and Ike" for salt and pepper; and "Put out the lights and cry" for liver and onions.
