Entry · catalog no. 7670

boogie

/ /ˈbʊɡi/ /BOOG-ee

verb · Southern · nationwide · 1920s

✓ Verified

To dance, or to party hard and let yourself go. Also to move fast — "let's boogie."

“Soon as that bassline dropped, everybody got up to boogie.”

Origin & Attribution

From boogie-woogie, the rolling blues piano style of Black players in the early 20th century. Clarence "Pinetop" Smith cut "Pinetop's Boogie Woogie" in 1928; the shortened boogie carried the dance-and-party meaning forward for decades.

1928

Pinetop Smith records Pinetop's Boogie Woogie

Region of origin

West

Midwest

N.East

South

Nationwide

Southern · nationwide · 1920s

Spoken by

Black blues pianists and dancers; general use

$BOOGIEThe Record · cultural traction

▲ Steady

98 yrs

ahead of the mainstream

55/100

peak cultural energy

Introduced to English by the culture — logged here before the mainstream caught on.

Cultural usage — the recordMainstream search interest

First used

1928

in the culture

Recorded here

2026

point of first record

Cultural energy indexed from documented usage, search interest, and citation frequency. The recorded date is the archive’s permanent point of record.

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Atlanta, GA

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Memphis, TN

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Citations & Sources

■

Clarence "Pinetop" Smith, "Pinetop's Boogie Woogie" — recording · 1928

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