FW: eighty-six or 86; short-order cookery language

[Wilson Gray]

Is it true that "86" began life as rhyming slang for "nix" or for "86
(=) nix, nix," as I actually saw it put, somewhere or other, many
years ago.

-Wilson

On 6/29/07, Mark Mandel <thnidu at gmail.com> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Mark Mandel <thnidu at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: FW: eighty-six or 86; short-order cookery language
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> ISTM that "short and simple to speak" implies "easily misheard or not heard
> at all in a noisy environment", which describes most fast-food joints and
> diners and probably all commercial kitchens. And by all I've heard, this
> particular piece of slang is a lot older than computerized order entry
> systems. Compare the "phonetic alphabets" (e.g., alpha bravo charlie
> delta...) used for spelling or otherwise specifying letters of the alphabet
> in noisy environments or on acoustically degraded channels such as radio.
>
> m a m
>
> On 6/19/07, Frank Abate <FABATE at cinci.rr.com> wrote:
> >
> > Below is from my son, Greg, who has several years of recent experience in
> > restaurant work.
> >
> >   _____
> >
> > Sent: Tuesday, June 19, 2007 10:12 AM
> > To: Frank Abate
> > Subject: Re: eighty-six or 86; short-order cookery language
> >
> >
> > [...]
> > Everywhere I've worked you would simply type "NO" to exclude
> > something in an individual order ("NO TOMATO").  This is also shorter and
> > simpler to speak than 86, and short and simple (read: fast) is the name of
> > the game in the food industry.
> >
> >
> > G
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > On 6/19/07, Frank Abate <FABATE at cinci.rr.com> wrote:
> >
> > "86" is used currently at the Ruby Tuesday restaurant in Blue Ash, Ohio
> > (near Cincinnati).  It is on the store's computer system software, used to
> > enter orders by servers and send them to the kitchen for preparation.
> > Servers and cooks there use it in speech as well.
> >
> >         86 = 'do not prepare or serve with _______'
> >
> >         SERVER USAGE: "86 (the) mayo on that Triple Prime Burger"
> >
> >         SCREEN USAGE: "________ 86 MAYO"
> >
> >
> > Other info: The Ruby Tuesday chain has more than 900 stores.  HQ is
> > Tennessee.
> >
> > Side note: "store" is the usual designation in the restaurant biz for any
> > specific location in a chain of restaurants.  Seemed a bit unusual to me
> > at
> > first when I noticed the use (Sept 2006), but I now use it myself and now
> > it
> > to be frequent and widespread among restaurant workers.
> >
> >
> > Frank Abate
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
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> >
>
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