verbing (it)

[Laurence Horn]

At 6:33 PM -0800 2/24/01, Arnold Zwicky wrote:
>people send me examples of all sorts.  here's one from a friend in
>ohio, who notes "the startling-to-me verbing in the first paragraph":
>
>>Pat Schroeder's New Chapter
>
>>By Linton Weeks
>>Washington Post Staff Writer
>>Wednesday, February 7, 2001 ; Page C01
>
>>At a small reception for publishers of scientific and academic
>>journals, Patricia Schroeder waves her hand toward several
>>dozen egghead types who are cocktailing it at the Corcoran
>>Gallery of Art -- sampling shrimp and cheese kebabs, wining on
>>not-too-shabby Chablis and schmoozing above the soothing strings
>>of the Bellini Ensemble.
>
>there are at least two interesting aspects of "cocktailing it": the
>verbing itself, and the dummy object "it".  ("cocktailing it up" would
>also have been possible, maybe also "cocktailing up a storm".)
>
By (loose) analogy with "hightailing it"?

larry