Diane Holt wrote: > > I always thought it came from a code-number for bussing a table -- but > American Heritage seems to have another idea about it:
There are more than a few theories on this... see http://www.restaurantreport.com/qa/86d.html and http://www.word-detective.com/back-i2.html Here's my favorite quote: The theory you've heard about "86" is certainly entertaining, but is unsubstantiated and probably not true. Fortunately, there are lots of other theories. Unfortunately, there's not much evidence supporting them, either. What we do know is that "86" first appeared as "kitchen slang" meaning "out of that item" in the 1930's, and fairly quickly came to mean "stop serving that customer" as well. Eventually, "86" spread to general usage, where it came to mean simply "dismiss" or "quash" ("The boss 86'ed my proposal for beer in the lunchroom"). - Sam Ruby -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For additional commands, e-mail: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
