eighty-six or 86

[Jonathan Lighter]

HDAS offers more time-wasting facts about "eighty-six" than any other humanly accessible print source.

  As an unwanted customer: 1943.

  Kustomary kudos to Barry for finding possiby the earliest date of all; it falls within the known spread of 1926-35 for HDAS's primary ex. -  a dubious one, to be sure.

  JL
  Darla Wells <dlw3208 at LOUISIANA.EDU> wrote:
  ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Darla Wells
Subject: Re: eighty-six or 86
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sorry. That would have been in the early 1980's in Southern California and
much of the Midwest. I have heard it as recently as the mid-90's in context
and since then from people who were in and out of the business and were just
catching me up on the news. Most of them are dead now; carnies don't have
really long lifespans.
Darla





With magic, you can turn a frog into a prince. With science, you can turn a
frog into a Ph.D and you still have the frog you started with. (Terry Pratchett)

---------- Original Message -----------
From: Laurence Urdang
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Sent: Tue, 19 Jun 2007 07:02:25 -0700
Subject: Re: eighty-six or 86

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: Laurence Urdang
> Subject: Re: eighty-six or 86
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> The important thing is When? "Used to" is meaningless.
> L. Urdang
>
> Darla Wells wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
-----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: Darla Wells
> Subject: Re: eighty-six or 86
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> We used to use 86 on the carnival to mean banning someone from the
> lot or kicking a person off the lot, often by force.
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
------- End of Original Message -------

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