"86" Etymology

[Ellory]

As we all know, the term "86" is widely used today as a synonym for "kill" or "stop". There are many rumored origins of the term from restaurants to grave digging. I first remember the "86" terminology as simply a "lockout" designation for electric power switchgear protection diagrams. The WESTINGHOUSE switchgear diagrams where I saw the "86" code were from the late 1930's. Does anyone remember the date where the "86" device code was first used? I figure that "86" originally had no significance other than it was just the next number in a long list of electrical protection device notations so designated by a very serious committee of electrical engineers. If my hypothesis is true and if we can establish the first year of release of these device codes that are now ANSI codes, then this may finally answer the question about the true origin of the term.

 

[jghrist]

See

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=86

 

[Ellory]

Thanks, but IMHO urban dictionary is not much of a source.

 

[electricpete]

Google is full of ideas about the origin of the phrase, but none definitive:

http://tinyurl.com/yd3afuc

Your idea is intriguing and original. Something tells me power engineers are not such an influential bunch as can take credit for things like this.

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[waross]

I have always understood that it was used as an unambiguous end stop to a newspaper reporter's copy.

Bill
--------------------
"Why not the best?"
Jimmy Carter

 

[rbulsara]

I am still struggling with 10-4, so haven't gotten to 86 yet!

Rafiq Bulsara

http://www.srengineersct.com

 

[rhatcher]

During the 1980's when I served in the USMC, '86' was a term for 'getting rid of something.' I know that this term was also used by the USN since the USMC is a branch of that service and we served together. I do not know if it was used by the Army or the Air Force but, I suspect that it was.

I do not think that I have ever heard that term used in a civilian context. However, that is not meant to imply that the origin is military based. I do not know the origin but I think that the urban myths are interesting.

 

[edison123]

I'm with Rafiq. Never got that 10-4 thingy.

Muthu

http://www.edison.co.in

 

[BJC]

The general ideal of all the above seems correct. Did the people who made "86" the device number for a lock-out relay know of the general use of "86" or did it come right after device 85? Or did it all start after the ANSI standards originated. Did engineering introduce a term that became used outside of engineering?
In "Get Smart" Maxwell Smart (Don Adams) was Control Agent 86. Together he and Agent 99 (Barbra Feldon) fought the forces of KAOS.
The show introduce many technological advances such as the "shoe phone" and the "cone of silence"

 

[Ellory]

The AIEE wrote AIEE 26 in 1928 which must have included the "86" term.

 

[wareagle]

10 - 4 Thingy

http://www.roity.com/rc/cbradio/cbcodes.html

 

[rhatcher]

I was still thinking about this post and remembered some more about why we used the term 86 in the military. Article 86 of the UCMJ (US military law) is the crime of being 'Absent Without Leave.' A person that is absent without leave has disappeared without explanation and is said to have 86'ed it.

I also think that 86 had an association with 'deep six', literally meaning to throw something overboard into the ocean and figuratively meaning to get rid of something.

In either case, I believe that for this electrical device that the name is Device 86 because the one named before was Device 85 and the one after was Device 87. It was just a number on a list.