It means nothing to me

Yesterday, I used the term "86" to mean something that was eliminated.

I've heard that term all my life. It began in the restaurant industry, where someone trying to order a cream-cheese sandwich on date-nut bread would hear the counterman say, "It's been 86'ed!" which meant choose something else, buddy, and make it fast.

The cream-cheese sandwich on date-nut bread, as pictured at left, was once so popular that people were named for it! Hefty Yankee Pitcher C.C. Sabathia's first name is the abbreviation for "Cream Cheese" Sabathia. You could look it up!

The lunch counters of America created so many wonderfully expressive terms like this, back when we had time for counters.  Or lunch.

Another one was "Adam and Eve on a raft, and wreck 'em!" That meant "Two scrambled eggs on toast, please."

According to legend, "86" came to mean a big NO because it rhymes with "Nix," which was a term that linguistic sharpies used to use to mean "forget it." It was often heard when people asked for something free, and got a big NIX in reply.

We got "nix" from the Dutch word "niks," which meant "nothing."

Which is not to say it means nothing. It does mean something. It means "nothing."

Sometimes I worry about my dear English slanguage.