Question of the Day - 21 October 2006

Oh my! We're guessing you had no idea what a can of worms you opened when you innocently lobbed this hot potato our way. Still, we're not afraid of a few worms so, to push our mixed metaphors just a little further, we're going to take this bull by the horns.

First, for those who don't know, the act of being 86'd from a casino equates with being read the Trespass Act, meaning that you’re barred from the property in question and risk being arrested should you attempt to enter it thereafter. But where did the term come from?

On the surface, the number 86 seems innocent enough. In fact, in mathematical parlance it's among the 15% or so "happy numbers" (we'd hate to digress further, but you can Google that if you don't know and do care what it means). It's also, among other things, the atomic number of radon, the number of the French department of Vienne, the designation of a highway in Idaho (and others in Pennsylvania and New York), and the international dialing code for China. None of these has any bearing on the number's use in reference to being thrown out of a casino, however, although the fact that 86 is also a common proof for scotch whiskies might. But more on that later...

There are, in fact, many theories for the origin of the term "86'd," none of which has or can be proven definitively. One thing they all have in common, however, is that they have nothing to do with the world of gambling, so this obviously represents a later application of an already established phrase. Many versions are related to restaurants and bars and our gut feeling is that this general area is the most likely source, but we'll list all the explanations we've come across, in an approximate reverse order of likelihood:

• One explanation is that the term derives from British merchant shipping, in which the standard crew size was 85. Hence, the 86th man was left behind. Sounds highly unlikely.

• Another dubious theory was that the soup-kitchen cauldrons of the Great Depression held enough for 85 cups of soup, meaning the 86th unfortunate in line was out of luck.

• In Subchapter X, the "Punitive Articles" of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, which deals with offenses under the code, Article 86 is the one covering absence without leave. But again, this meaning doesn't really fit the subsequent contexts to which the term 86ing is applied.

• One writer we came across explained that in culinary school, he was told that it was a reference for trash barges, which were required to reach 86 fathoms before dumping their load.

• Apparently, in the 1930s the term was applied to the streetcar line that operated on First Avenue in New York City (where several of the possible explanations have their origins). The line ran from 14th Street to 86th Street, where the motorman shouted, "Eighty-six! End of the line! All out!"

• The Oxford English Dictionary suggests the term may have been rhyming slang for the word "nix," (which, surprisingly, is an 18th century English word originating from the German nichts or nothing.) If true, the rhyming slang was created much later in the U.S., however, which doesn't quite gel, since rhyming slang was generally the preserve of the Cockney inhabitants of London's East End.

• A theory we've seen repeated in more than one place was that '86 was the year that California ran out of gold during the "rush" years, but it was in 1884 that a court ruling brought an end to hydraulic mining and, effectively, the Californian gold-mining industry, so this doesn't quite tally with the facts. Or make much sense.

• The observation deck of the Empire State building is located on the 86th story, so one theory is that the term reflected the popularity of this level as a suicide spot.

• Another theory is that 6 feet deep by 8 feet long were the common dimensions for a grave plot, hence being "86'd" meant being taken permanently out of the equation, particularly in the military.

• We then begin entering the realms of eating and drinking, which we feel is the most likely place for the origins of this term to lie. Of these, the vaguest has it that a fashionable New York restaurant, of unknown identity, had a total of 85 tables, and hence allocating someone table 86 meant they weren’t getting in.

• Chumley’s a former Prohibition-era speakeasy and now bar in New York’s Greenwich Village claims the term 86ing as its own. Located at 86 Bedford Street, the story goes that when a raid was imminent, a collaborating cop would tip off the management to hide the booze and get rid of the clientele via a secret exit. Other sources suggest that the chronology of this story may not work, however, since Chumley’s didn’t open until 1927 and the term was apparently in use a couple of years prior to that. Still, the coincidence may well have contributed to the term’s growing use.

• Another popular, although again utterly unsubstantiated explanation, was that in the saloons of the Wild West era, if a man was getting drunk and disorderly, the bar would water down his drink from the regular 100 proof served to men to the weaker 86 proof served to women. This insult to his masculinity was apparently deemed sufficient to encourage the inebriated patron to leave.

• In bar culture, the term is attributed to Article 86 of the New York State Liquor Code, which specifically outlines the circumstances in which a patron should be refused alcohol or removed from the bar.

• A more credible version of the restaurant theory cited above was that Delmonico’s in New York, one of the country’s oldest restaurants, served ribeye steak as item number 86 on the menu which, being popular, regularly sold out. From here the term entered the general catering lexicon to mean an item that had sold out or was out of stock, and this remains our favorite for the most likely original use of the term.

You’re probably sorry you asked, and we’re sorry that we can’t give you a definite answer, but the above should certainly be some food for thought.

Check out the updated re-run of this answer (11/25/2008) for the link to an interesting feature on this same subject, courtesy of snopes.com 02/10/2007UPDATE -- Thanks to the reader who wrote in with this interesting tidbit: "On October 20, 2006 you ran a question about the term being '86'd.' In the electrical world an 86 device locks out an electrical bus or generator that has experienced a significant fault. To re-energize the equipmant the 86 device must be manually reset. I don't know which came first but it's an interesting correlation." 10/18/2006: Thanks to the reader who wrote in with the following. If anyone can shed any light on this, please drop us a line via the QoD submission link. "I vaguely recall that newspaper reporters typed 86 at the bottom of a document to indicate "end of story." If you know anyone in the publishing industry (snicker -- newspaper publishing), you might check with them." Here's what we heard back: "In journalism, 30 is the number for the end of story. It's short for 30 hyphens, which used to indicate the end of story. Then it became -30-."