"To book it" seems have a new usage: namely, to express exerting oneself while racing to get somewhere on foot. I'm not sure, but I gather it may also carry the implication that the subject is doing this while encumbered (by books?).
Has anyone encountered this usage? If so, have you any insights into its origin?
My first impression was that this was simply a corruption of "to hoof it", meaning to go somewhere on foot, since it's used in a grammatically similar way. But "to hoof it" has no implication of speed or hurrying, only of going by foot.
Example: "I looked up at the clock and realized I had to make it clear across to the other side of campus in seven minutes, so I dropped what I was doing, grabbed my backpack, and raced out immediately. I'll tell you, I was really booking it! And I just barely made it in time."
The expression is apparently in common usage among students at my daughter's college (American English, East Coast).
Thanks!
Has anyone encountered this usage? If so, have you any insights into its origin?
My first impression was that this was simply a corruption of "to hoof it", meaning to go somewhere on foot, since it's used in a grammatically similar way. But "to hoof it" has no implication of speed or hurrying, only of going by foot.
Example: "I looked up at the clock and realized I had to make it clear across to the other side of campus in seven minutes, so I dropped what I was doing, grabbed my backpack, and raced out immediately. I'll tell you, I was really booking it! And I just barely made it in time."
The expression is apparently in common usage among students at my daughter's college (American English, East Coast).
Thanks!