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?
I'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.
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We 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?
Urban 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.
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I'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?
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