# Book...as in to leave..origin **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 28, 2005, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-as-in-to-leave-origin/314489 "2005-07-28T00:19:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Reeder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Reeder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reeder)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2005, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-as-in-to-leave-origin/314489/1 "2005-07-28T00:19:02Z")
Hey…I gotta book…see y’all later. I can’t find the origin of this usage. Anyone know? ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2005, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-as-in-to-leave-origin/314489/2 "2005-07-28T00:47:37Z")
I never heard it as meaning ‘to leave’ but rather ‘to move’ or ‘to move quickly’. Used it as a boy in SoCal in the early 1980s. ---
**Author:** ![rfgdxm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c0e974/32.png) [@rfgdxm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rfgdxm)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2005, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-as-in-to-leave-origin/314489/3 "2005-07-28T00:51:43Z")
Doesn’t one book an airline or train passage? ---
**Author:** ![quiltguy154](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/ad7895/32.png) [@quiltguy154](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/quiltguy154)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2005, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-as-in-to-leave-origin/314489/4 "2005-07-28T00:53:26Z")
Perhaps from the closing of a book after it’s been read, i.e. nothing more to do but move on to something else. It may also stem from the Catholic rite of excommunication. A bell is rung, a candle is extinguished and a book[the Bible, presumably] is closed, signifying it’s all over for you. ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2005, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-as-in-to-leave-origin/314489/5 "2005-07-28T00:56:46Z")
There’s this thing? Called [Usenet](http://groups-beta.google.com/group/alt.usage.english/browse_thread/thread/698f64d2b5067c24/89a9dd7dfe2ffba5?lnk=st&q=book+move+group:alt.usage.english&rnum=1#89a9dd7dfe2ffba5)? Seems as though it’s got to do with booking a flight, ie: making use of the quickest available mode of exit. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2005, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-as-in-to-leave-origin/314489/6 "2005-07-28T01:10:49Z")
I distinctly remember hearing this usage for the first time around 1974, as “let’s book.” It was new to me and I wrote it down as an example of teenage slang to use in a story. ---
**Author:** ![Can\_Handle\_the\_Truth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Can\_Handle\_the\_Truth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Can_Handle_the_Truth)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2005, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-as-in-to-leave-origin/314489/7 "2005-07-28T02:30:00Z")
I always thought it refered to setting a speed record, as in “Let’s make it one for the record books.” ---
**Author:** ![The\_Hook](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ccd318/32.png) [@The\_Hook](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Hook)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2005, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-as-in-to-leave-origin/314489/8 "2005-07-28T03:49:49Z")
Aren’t there (rather, “weren’t there”) workplaces where you have to record the time of your arrival and the moment you leave? Kinda like punching a card. I take it to mean this, but I’ve been known an idiot in the past, so take it as that. ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_T](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Gary\_T](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_T)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2005, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-as-in-to-leave-origin/314489/9 "2005-07-28T05:18:54Z")
I always understood it to be a shortened form of boogie. First we have boogie-woogie music. It was shortened to boogie. Boogie was then made a verb meaning dance. A new related meaning arose as move along/leave (analogous to “waltz right out of here”). Then boogie meaning leave (not boogie meaning music nor boogie meaning dance) was shortened to book. [This site](http://www.inthe70s.com/generated/terms.shtml) seems to support that view. Scroll down to “Let’s boogie” and “Let’s book.” ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2005, 12:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-as-in-to-leave-origin/314489/10 "2005-07-28T12:39:38Z")
Recent usage… In _The Incredibles_ during the dining room scene when Helen tells Bob about Dash’s getting in trouble Bob is amazed and tells Dash something along the lines of 'Man, you must have been BOOKING" ---
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2005, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-as-in-to-leave-origin/314489/11 "2005-07-28T15:05:13Z")
> [@Jonathan Chance](#): > > I never heard it as meaning ‘to leave’ but rather ‘to move’ or ‘to move quickly’. > > Used it as a boy in SoCal in the early 1980s. FWIW, the “move quickly” conotation was also in use in the New Orleans area in the early to mid 1980s. However, I have heard “book = leave” many times over the past decade or so. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2005, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-as-in-to-leave-origin/314489/12 "2005-07-28T15:21:19Z")
I first heard in 1980 from my roommate. He was Jewish, so I had always just assumed it was a Yiddish word. ---
**Author:** ![Clothahump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2005, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-as-in-to-leave-origin/314489/13 "2005-07-28T16:56:44Z")
I’ve have always heard that it derived from “booking passage” on a plane or ship. So “Let’s book” meant “Let’s get away from here.” ---
**Author:** ![rfgdxm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c0e974/32.png) [@rfgdxm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rfgdxm)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2005, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-as-in-to-leave-origin/314489/14 "2005-07-28T17:05:39Z")
> [@Clothahump](#): > > I’ve have always heard that it derived from “booking passage” on a plane or ship. So “Let’s book” meant “Let’s get away from here.” And AFAIK “booking passage” is a rather old phrase. I’d consider this the best guess as the origin unless someone can show “boogie” was in common use before “booking passage”. ---
**Author:** ![Meaty\_Beaty\_Big\_and\_Bouncy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c57346/32.png) [@Meaty\_Beaty\_Big\_and\_Bouncy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meaty_Beaty_Big_and_Bouncy)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2005, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-as-in-to-leave-origin/314489/15 "2005-07-28T17:38:28Z")
It was teenage slang in the Midwest in the mid-70s meaning “to go”. Gotta split 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2005, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-as-in-to-leave-origin/314489/16 "2005-07-28T18:16:18Z")
> [@Jonathan Chance](#): > > I never heard it as meaning ‘to leave’ but rather ‘to move’ or ‘to move quickly’. > > Used it as a boy in SoCal in the early 1980s. Even earlier, SoCal during high school, 1969-1972. ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_T](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Gary\_T](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_T)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2005, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-as-in-to-leave-origin/314489/17 "2005-07-28T18:38:02Z")
> [@rfgdxm](#): > > And AFAIK “booking passage” is a rather old phrase. I’d consider this the best guess as the origin unless someone can show “boogie” was in common use before “booking passage”. That doesn’t make sense to me. “Boogie” meaning to leave came into use in the 70’s. “Book” came into use **after** “boogie” did (which does make sense with its being a shortened form of “boogie”). How long “booking passage” was in use is irrelevant. I heard plenty of young folks in the era talk about boogieing, then somewhat later about booking. I never heard anyone talk about booking passage. ---
**Author:** ![Cheesesteak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cheesesteak/32/3694_2.png) [@Cheesesteak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheesesteak)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2005, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-as-in-to-leave-origin/314489/18 "2005-07-28T19:29:24Z")
> [@rfgdxm](#): > > And AFAIK “booking passage” is a rather old phrase. I’d consider this the best guess as the origin unless someone can show “boogie” was in common use before “booking passage”. The Andrews Sisters had a hit with “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy” in 1941. According to wikipedia, boogie-woogie was a popular type of piano music in the 40’s, and the word boogie was found in use as early as 1913. Certainly boogie was around long enough to be the origin of book. ---
**Author:** ![rfgdxm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c0e974/32.png) [@rfgdxm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rfgdxm)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2005, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-as-in-to-leave-origin/314489/19 "2005-07-28T19:33:00Z")
> [@Gary T](#): > > That doesn’t make sense to me. “Boogie” meaning to leave came into use in the 70’s. “Book” came into use **after** “boogie” did (which does make sense with its being a shortened form of “boogie”). How long “booking passage” was in use is irrelevant. I heard plenty of young folks in the era talk about boogieing, then somewhat later about booking. I never heard anyone talk about booking passage. “Booking passage” is an old phrase. It clearly predates “boogie”. Why “book” instead of “boog”? ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2005, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-as-in-to-leave-origin/314489/20 "2005-07-28T19:33:20Z")
Some more on [_boogie_](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1_288.html). [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-as-in-to-leave-origin/314489.md?page=2)