June 30, 2012, 09:35
<Proofreader>How do you skip?
World Wide Words discussed the term "wag off", to cut classes, today. I've never heard of it but we did say, when we cut class, we were "bunking school". Does anyone else have other terms for this insidious practice?
June 30, 2012, 15:51
GeoffI've heard of "wave off," from the early days of aircraft carrier landings, wherein a person directed a landing plane with a pair of flags.
A poor approach would receive a "wave off," or don't land - go around - signal from the landing signal officer, or LSO. As for "wag off," it sounds like a dog skipping obedience training.
June 30, 2012, 21:08
KallehDitch? Take a mental health day?
July 01, 2012, 00:13
BobHaleI've heard both wag off and bunk off - also skive (with and without an "off") and (play) truant.
July 01, 2012, 01:04
arniequote:
Originally posted by BobHale:
I've heard both wag off and bunk off - also skive (with and without an "off") and (play) truant.
Ditto. Also "hop off".
July 01, 2012, 05:21
<Proofreader>Another I recall is "play hooky".
July 02, 2012, 05:34
Graham NiceWe skived off if we pretended illness and bunked off if we just disappeared. You could also wag school (without the off).
Sickies are very common at my school - is that the term used by the Australian prime minister after the runner won her gold at the Sydney Olympics and he thought anybody with a hangover should take the day off?
July 02, 2012, 10:02
bethree5Urban Dictionary says "sluff", used most commonly in the Western U.S., sluffing (probably derived from the word 'to slough') is synonymous with skipping class.."
I haven't heard it but I like it.
July 02, 2012, 10:38
arnieI've just remembered another term we used which is a mixture of two already mentioned: "hopping the wag". I see that Michael Quinion mentions it in his newsletter:
quote:
My wife remembers taking a day off when she was a student teacher at a London school in the 1960s and being asked the following day by a child, “Was you hoppin’ the wag, Miss?” That’s recorded a century earlier, from the 1860s.
I wonder if "wag" is short for "wagon" by any chance?
July 02, 2012, 20:17
Kallehquote:
wag off
I wondered about wag off, too, arnie. In looking it up online, it clearly is used a lot in the UK. It is not used here.