hash-house lingo queries

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On Tue, 19 Jul 2005 20:08:59 -0500, Cohen, Gerald Leonard <gcohen at UMR.EDU>
wrote:

>Earlier today (Tuesday), Bill Mullins reproduced an interesting article
>on railroad slang  which included a brief treatment of hash-house lingo
>almost as an afterthought.  I've rearranged the items alphabetically and
>indicated with two asterisks the ones whose origin is unclear to me.  For
>example, why is "radio" a  tuna fish sandwich on toasted white bread? Why
>is "fifty-one" hot chocolate?
[snip]

Why single out the "51" code for hot chocolate as "unclear"? Is it somehow
more opaque than "81" for water or "86" for "no more" (discounting the
"nix" rhyming slang theory)? Not to mention other numerical codes not
included on the list but attested elsewhere, e.g., "61" for coffee, "55"
for root beer, "5" for milk, "41" for lemonade, "21" for limeade, etc.



--Ben Zimmer