(Fully) Booked (Up)
Mark Brader
Legal Sea Foods restaurant, but was unsuccessful. (We ate at the second-
nearest one instead.) The person I spoke to said, "We're booked."
The way I would have expressed it was that they were "booked up". To
me, "booked" refers to the state resulting from a *single* reservation
or booking; for a restaurant to be "booked", a single party would have
had to reserve all the tables.
When in Britain, the way I usually hear it said is "we're fully booked".
Where exactly do people use which forms of this expression?
--
Mark Brader, Toronto | "[I] have a will of iron."
m...@vex.net | "And a head to match." --Robert B. Parker, "Chance"
My text in this article is in the public domain.
Michael West
Mark Brader <m...@vex.net> wrote in message news:82fvv9$2mjt$1...@hub.org...
> While in Boston recently, I tried to make a reservation at the nearest
> Legal Sea Foods restaurant, but was unsuccessful. (We ate at the second-
> nearest one instead.) The person I spoke to said, "We're booked."
>
> The way I would have expressed it was that they were "booked up". To
> me, "booked" refers to the state resulting from a *single* reservation
> or booking; for a restaurant to be "booked", a single party would have
> had to reserve all the tables.
>
> When in Britain, the way I usually hear it said is "we're fully booked".
>
> Where exactly do people use which forms of this expression?
> --
"Fully booked" is common in Oz. I would not be surprised, though, to hear
the less formal, and probably American, "booked up" or "all booked up".
Just "booked" by itself seems odd though, even from an American. Sounds like
an exceptional usage.
--
Michael West
Melbourne, Australia
Richard Fontana
>
>Mark Brader <m...@vex.net> wrote in message news:82fvv9$2mjt$1...@hub.org...
>> While in Boston recently, I tried to make a reservation at the nearest
>> Legal Sea Foods restaurant, but was unsuccessful. (We ate at the second-
>> nearest one instead.) The person I spoke to said, "We're booked."
>>
>> The way I would have expressed it was that they were "booked up". To
>> me, "booked" refers to the state resulting from a *single* reservation
>> or booking; for a restaurant to be "booked", a single party would have
>> had to reserve all the tables.
>>
>> When in Britain, the way I usually hear it said is "we're fully booked".
>>
>> Where exactly do people use which forms of this expression?
>
>the less formal, and probably American, "booked up" or "all booked up".
I'm familiar with these, and also expressions like "booked solid".
>Just "booked" by itself seems odd though, even from an American. Sounds like
>an exceptional usage.
Agreed, unless it's a Bostonianism. I can imagine someone saying it out
of speech-laziness: the person meant to say "booked up" but just said
"booked". People do that sort of thing.
Richard
Jesse the K
> While in Boston recently, I tried to make a reservation at the nearest
> Legal Sea Foods restaurant, but was unsuccessful. (We ate at the second-
> nearest one instead.) The person I spoke to said, "We're booked."
But, how was the food?
--
Jesse the K -- Madison, Wisconsin, USA -- <je...@mailbag.com>
Where am I going, and what am I doing in this handbasket?
Golgo13
> Michael West sez:
> >
> >Mark Brader <m...@vex.net> wrote in message news:82fvv9$2mjt$1...@hub.org...
> >> While in Boston recently, I tried to make a reservation at the nearest
> >> Legal Sea Foods restaurant, but was unsuccessful. (We ate at the second-
> >> nearest one instead.) The person I spoke to said, "We're booked."
> >>
> >> The way I would have expressed it was that they were "booked up". To
> >> me, "booked" refers to the state resulting from a *single* reservation
> >> or booking; for a restaurant to be "booked", a single party would have
> >> had to reserve all the tables.
> >>
> >> When in Britain, the way I usually hear it said is "we're fully booked".
> >>
> >> Where exactly do people use which forms of this expression?
> >
> >"Fully booked" is common in Oz. I would not be surprised, though, to hear
> >the less formal, and probably American, "booked up" or "all booked up".
>
> I'm familiar with these, and also expressions like "booked solid".
>
> >Just "booked" by itself seems odd though, even from an American. Sounds like
> >an exceptional usage.
>
> Agreed, unless it's a Bostonianism. I can imagine someone saying it out
> of speech-laziness: the person meant to say "booked up" but just said
> "booked". People do that sort of thing.
Yes, "We're all booked up" (or booked solid) would be the usual idiom.
Speaking of "book," does anyone remember "booking" which meant "moving
quickly"? I was mentioning this at home and wondered whatever happened
to this turn of phrase.
DLS
--
D. Sosnoski
gol...@entercomp.com
"When you say the world is composed of nothing but value,
what are you talking about?" - RMP
Frances Kemmish
>
>
> Yes, "We're all booked up" (or booked solid) would be the usual idiom.
> Speaking of "book," does anyone remember "booking" which meant "moving
> quickly"? I was mentioning this at home and wondered whatever happened
> to this turn of phrase.
>
I heard someone use that the other day - a lady who grew up in Western
NY State. I was surprised, because I recall discussions here, which
seemed to place it as a Mid-Western usage.
Fran
Alex
>>Speaking of "book," does anyone remember "booking" which
>>meant "moving quickly"? I was mentioning this at home and
>>wondered whatever happened to this turn of phrase.
>I heard someone use that the other day - a lady who grew up in
>Western NY State. I was surprised, because I recall discussions
>here, which seemed to place it as a Mid-Western usage.
I grew up in Western New York State (Rochester), and "booking" was
frequently used to mean "moving quickly". I haven't heard that term in
years, though. Maybe it's because I rarely book at *anything* anymore. I'm
old beyond my (34) years.
Sincerely yours,
Alex Chernavsky
Richard Fontana
>Golgo13 wrote:
>> Yes, "We're all booked up" (or booked solid) would be the usual idiom.
>> quickly"? I was mentioning this at home and wondered whatever happened
>> to this turn of phrase.
>
>I heard someone use that the other day - a lady who grew up in Western
>NY State. I was surprised, because I recall discussions here, which
>seemed to place it as a Mid-Western usage.
I'm no expert on US dialects (nor do I play one on TV) but linguistically
speaking I think people in western NY State have a closer relationship
to the mid-west proper than to the East proper. This is quite clear when
you consider the prevailing regional accents. (Of course, some in my
part of the world might argue that you don't have to go very far inland
to be in the midwest.)
I could swear I've occasionally heard a slang usage "Let's book [it]" or
"we better book [it]" meaning "let's get out of here, let's leave",
perhaps used with some sense that the departure should be a quick one,
but I'm not sure. It's obviously close to unknown where I'm from, though
I don't associate it with any region in particular. Is there such a usage,
and is this related to the "book" = "move" that's being discussed? I
can't find mention of it in any of my dictionaries.
Richard
D. Spencer Hines
--
D. Spencer Hines
Lux et Veritas et Libertas
--
"Volkov boyat'sya v les ne khodit'" --- Russian Proverb --- [If one is
afraid of wolves, one should not go into the forest.]
Alex
>linguistically speaking I think people in western NY State have
>a closer relationship to the mid-west proper than to the East proper.
>This is quite clear when you consider the prevailing regional accents.
I've lived in Rochester, New York off-and-on for 34 years, and this is the
first I've ever heard of it. True, I don't have a particular interest in
regional accents, but still...
Do you have any references? Not trying to jump on you here -- just a little
skeptical (and curious).
Sincerely yours,
Alex Chernavsky
John O'Flaherty
>
> Francis Kemmish wrote:
>
> >>Speaking of "book," does anyone remember "booking" which
> >>meant "moving quickly"? I was mentioning this at home and
> >>wondered whatever happened to this turn of phrase.
>
> >I heard someone use that the other day - a lady who grew up in
> >Western NY State. I was surprised, because I recall discussions
> >here, which seemed to place it as a Mid-Western usage.
>
> frequently used to mean "moving quickly". I haven't heard that term in
> years, though. Maybe it's because I rarely book at *anything* anymore. I'm
> old beyond my (34) years.
I've assumed that usage was an abbreviation of 'booking passage', used
to mean 'I'm getting away from here', but I don't know for sure.
john
Richard Fontana
It's something audibly obvious to me, an East Coast person.
To my ears, people from Rochester and Buffalo use the same basic
vowel system as people from suburban areas of southern Michigan and
northern Ohio, whose accents I'm quite familiar with. I would
describe the accents further west as more intensified versions of the
ones further east.
As for references, this phenomenon that I hear is, in fact, what's
called the Northern Cities Vowel Shift, and there's some information
on it at the Linguistic Atlas website at U.Penn. (According to them,
this speech pattern is spreading, and the NCVS can now be heard
as far east as western Vermont.)
There are older, more conservative styles of pronunciation in New
York state, as there are in the midwest, but it's harder for me to hear
the distinct features of such speech because it's much closer to my own
pronunciation.
Richard
Lars Eighner
In our last episode <C4234.13242$wG3.8...@typhoon.nyroc.rr.com>,
the lovely and talented "Alex" <al...@astrocyte-design.com>
broadcast on alt.usage.english:
|Francis Kemmish wrote:
|
|>>Speaking of "book," does anyone remember "booking" which
|>>meant "moving quickly"? I was mentioning this at home and
|>>wondered whatever happened to this turn of phrase.
|
|>I heard someone use that the other day - a lady who grew up in
|>Western NY State. I was surprised, because I recall discussions
|>here, which seemed to place it as a Mid-Western usage.
|
|I grew up in Western New York State (Rochester), and "booking" was
|frequently used to mean "moving quickly". I haven't heard that term in
|years, though. Maybe it's because I rarely book at *anything* anymore. I'm
|old beyond my (34) years.
This was common in Texas 30-40 years ago -- well, common for hip
youthspeak. I have no clue where it came from, but a contempory
expression meaning the same thing was "boogie." Perhaps the
two were related. "To move quickly, to get going" are senses
2a and 2b for the verb "boogie" in MWCD10. I can't imagine a
more concise definition of "book" in the sense we are discussing.
It is just my surmise, but it seems to me that "book" is
an alteration of "boogie," whether by accident or design.
--
Lars Eighner 700 Hearn #101 Austin TX 78703 eig...@io.com
(512) 474-1920 (FAX answers 6th ring) http://www.io.com/%7Eeighner/
bookstore: http://www.io.com/%7Eeighner/bookstore/
As long as the answer is right, who cares if the question is wrong?
Frances Kemmish
>
> Richard Fontana wrote, in part:
>
> >linguistically speaking I think people in western NY State have
> >a closer relationship to the mid-west proper than to the East proper.
> >This is quite clear when you consider the prevailing regional accents.
>
> I've lived in Rochester, New York off-and-on for 34 years, and this is the
> first I've ever heard of it. True, I don't have a particular interest in
> regional accents, but still...
>
> Do you have any references? Not trying to jump on you here -- just a little
> skeptical (and curious).
>
I don't know much about the accents in Western NY, but I did notice,
when I was travelling through there, that Rochester seems to be right on
the "pop" line - that is: west of there, soda is "pop". In Rochester, I
heard both words.
Fran
John O'Flaherty
There must be more than one such line- I grew up in Cleveland, Ohio
saying pop, and I've lived in St. Louis, Missouri for nearly 20 years,
where soda is used exclusively.
john
Jesse the K
rfon...@wesleyan.edu (Richard Fontana) wrote:
> I could swear I've occasionally heard a slang usage "Let's book [it]" or
> "we better book [it]" meaning "let's get out of here, let's leave",
> perhaps used with some sense that the departure should be a quick one,
> but I'm not sure. It's obviously close to unknown where I'm from, though
> I don't associate it with any region in particular. Is there such a
> usage,
> and is this related to the "book" = "move" that's being discussed? I
> can't find mention of it in any of my dictionaries.
Absolutely common as high school slang around the upper Midwest U.S. I
noticed it around 1977, and it probably has faded away by now. I like
Lars' notion that it's a corruption of "boogie," but can offer no proof.
Donna Richoux
> rfon...@wesleyan.edu (Richard Fontana) wrote:
>
> > I could swear I've occasionally heard a slang usage "Let's book [it]" or
> > "we better book [it]" meaning "let's get out of here, let's leave",
> > perhaps used with some sense that the departure should be a quick one,
> > but I'm not sure. It's obviously close to unknown where I'm from, though
> > I don't associate it with any region in particular. Is there such a
> > usage,
> > and is this related to the "book" = "move" that's being discussed? I
> > can't find mention of it in any of my dictionaries.
>
> Absolutely common as high school slang around the upper Midwest U.S. I
> noticed it around 1977, and it probably has faded away by now. I like
> Lars' notion that it's a corruption of "boogie," but can offer no proof.
The Random House Historical Dict. of American Slang shows the two words
(with the same meaning) as contemporaneous, first citations 1972. There
are earlier usees of the verb "boogie" meaning to dance, going back to
1947 (jazz/jive use). So it's inconclusive, but possible, that "to book"
is a variation of "to boogie." Does anyone remember really old-fashioned
folks saying "book"? People too strait-laced to say anything hip?
--
Best --- Donna Richoux
Lars Eighner
In our last episode <1e2gbz6.lz8t...@euronet.nl>,
the lovely and talented tr...@euronet.nl (Donna Richoux)
broadcast on alt.usage.english:
|The Random House Historical Dict. of American Slang shows the two words
|(with the same meaning) as contemporaneous, first citations 1972. There
|are earlier usees of the verb "boogie" meaning to dance, going back to
|1947 (jazz/jive use). So it's inconclusive, but possible, that "to book"
|is a variation of "to boogie." Does anyone remember really old-fashioned
|folks saying "book"? People too strait-laced to say anything hip?
No. My thought at first was that "book" might have been used
by those who were forbidden to "talk Negro." However, the
more I thought about the more likely it seemed to me that
"boogie" was (perhaps) sometimes shortened to "?boog" which would
easily be heard and repeated as "book." But I know of no evidence for
the middle step.
MWCD10 dates "boogie" (n., meaning the music) and "boogie-woogie"
to the 1920s and there is not much question that this is origin
of the verb.
On another tangent:
It was common, at least in the '60s in Texas for "FUCK" to
be disguised by altering it to "BOOK." I had noticed "BOOK"
carved into desks, walls, etc. at school for many years without
grasping the significance, before I arrived at school one morning
to see the janitors fixing up a "FUCK" that had been painted
in six-foot letters over the main entrance. It remained "BOOK"
until the sandblasters arrived some days later. I considered
this, but couldn't find a connection to the sense of "book"
under discussion.
--
Lars Eighner 700 Hearn #101 Austin TX 78703 eig...@io.com
(512) 474-1920 (FAX answers 6th ring) http://www.io.com/%7Eeighner/
bookstore: http://www.io.com/%7Eeighner/bookstore/
"Why is it called tourist season if we can't shoot them?"
Gary G. Taylor
<al...@astrocyte-design.com> wrote:
>Francis Kemmish wrote:
>
>>>Speaking of "book," does anyone remember "booking" which
>>>meant "moving quickly"? I was mentioning this at home and
>>>wondered whatever happened to this turn of phrase.
>
>>I heard someone use that the other day - a lady who grew up in
>>Western NY State. I was surprised, because I recall discussions
>>here, which seemed to place it as a Mid-Western usage.
>
>I grew up in Western New York State (Rochester), and "booking" was
>frequently used to mean "moving quickly". I haven't heard that term in
>years, though. Maybe it's because I rarely book at *anything* anymore. I'm
>old beyond my (34) years.
>
The young John Connor, played by Edward Furlong, uses it in the
movie "Terminator 2": "Let's book!"
Gary G. Taylor 29 Palms, CA
Reply to gary > donavan * org
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