I am occasionally (aka often) wrong, so I asked Claude what it thought about 86'ing. Below is what it had to say. I thought the history was of interest.
The prompt:
I think the term 86 is generic for getting rid of someone, e.g. firing. Others are claiming that it's shorthand for killing. What do you think?
Its response:
You're right, and the "killing" crowd is largely wrong — or at least working from a very minority usage. Here's what the evidence actually shows:
The primary, well-established meaning is exactly what you said: to get rid of, remove, or refuse service to someone or something. Merriam-Webster defines it as "to refuse to serve a customer" or "to get rid of or throw out" someone or something.
The origins are murky, but they clearly point toward removal/rejection, not violence. The term first appeared in the early 1930s as soda-fountain slang meaning an item was sold out. By the 1950s it became a verb, initially meaning "to refuse to serve a customer," and later broadening to "to get rid of; to throw out."
As for the "kill" meaning, it's real but very much secondary and recent. The verb sense of "kill, murder, or execute" only appears in documented usage from 1978 — decades after the term was already well established. Merriam-Webster acknowledges some equate it with "to kill," but notes this usage is infrequent, stating: "We do not enter this sense, due to its relative recency and sparseness of use."
Comey's lawyer has the easiest job in the world.
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