Query: "book" = leave, run away (Mea culpa)

[Gerald Cohen]

   Oops. Dave Wilton is right. When I checked RHHDAS I saw two
meanings of "boogie" (verb) at the end of the page and somehow
assumed that was the full entry. The next page has meaning #3, with
the relevant information. Meaning: "to get going, get busy, get to
work, do business; to go, esp. in a hurry." E.g. 1974 "Let's get out
of here. Let's boogie." And 1980: "There are a lot of people who've
never been through a hurricane...The word is--boogie on out."

    Evidently when "boogie" (go in a hurry) was shortened to just
"boog," it was misunderstood by most speakers to be "book" and then
used in this latter variant.

Gerald Cohen



>At 7:39 PM -0700 7/31/02, Dave Wilton wrote:
>>  I doubt the influence of "boog, boogie"; the similarity of these
>>  forms to "book" is probably just a coincidence. So the question is:
>>  How did "book" (one with pages) come to be a slang term for "leave,
>>  run away, etc."?
>>     Would anyone have any ideas?
>
>Why would you doubt it? "Boogie" can mean to leave, to depart: "Let's
>boogie. I've got to get home." This sense, according to RHHDAS, dates from
>c. 1974 as well. I think they clearly influenced one another, even if they
>ultimately are found to have separate origins.