eighty-six (86) not an antedating

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On Sun, 27 Mar 2005 21:25:08 -0500, Sam Clements <SClements at NEO.RR.COM>
wrote:

>...but early use to mean something other than being out of an item on a
>restaurant menu.
>
>Proquest,_Washington Post_  5 April, 1942. Pg. TC1, col. 5
>
>>>"Curious."  Chandos pulled the note toward him and glanced through it.
>     "T.K. will be 86.'  Is it code?"
>     "No.  IT's soda-popper jargon."
>     "Meaning?"
>     "Tell him,Chick."
>     "Eighty-six means out," I said.  "'The tuna-fish salad is 86' means
>there isn't any more.  And if you say a guy is 86, that means he's fired
>or all washed up or something like that."  <<

Here's another early cite...

-----
New York Times, Dec 29, 1939, p. 13
The cabalistic mumbo jumbo of soda-fountain workers has always puzzled us,
but we never found a fountain man with enough leisure time, or
inclination, to discuss it. Last night, though, we were having a malted in
the drug store in the Associated Press Building in Rockefeller Center and
Mr. Joe Reno, who served us, let us in on some of the secrets.
Now (Mr. Reno said) you take water, for example. If one customer wants
water, you call "Eighty-one." If you want water for two customers, you
call "Eighty-two." The system, however, stops at "Eighty-five." When a
soda-stand worker calls "Eighty-six," it is a sign-off; the store is out
of whatever you happen to ask for.
-----

The "81" and "86" codes also appear in Bentley's "Linguistic Concoctions
of the Soda Jerker" (_AmSp_, Feb. 1936), as well as the 1933 Walter
Winchell column that Barry Popik discovered in Dec. 2001:
http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0112E&L=ads-l&P=R609&m=11562

This article has "81" for water but gives "87" for the "all out" code
(casting some doubt on the "nix" rhyming-slang theory):

-----
Los Angeles Times, Jan 9, 1938, p. J2
Have you ever heard the soda clerks shouting numbers to each other? Here
are a few which we recently persuaded a nimble-fingered mixer to translate
for us:
"81" -- water for the customer.
"61" -- cup of coffee.
"87" -- we've run out of that item on the menu.
"37" -- take special pains for this customer.
"Watch the pump" -- the girl you're serving has pretty eyes.
"Stretch it" -- give this man a big one; he looks hungry.
"87 1/2" -- the girl in the corner has pretty legs.
-----

(Bentley's 1936 _AmSp_ article has the "87 1/2" code as well.)


--Ben Zimmer