Playing hooky

School has just started, but some students will already be playing hooky or, to put it more formally, being truant. “Truant” comes from a Celtic word meaning “wretched” (probably something the kids hanging out at the mall aren't). When the word was first used in English, it was a term of abuse for a beggar thought to be sufficiently able-bodied, but too lazy, to make an honest living instead of panhandling. The first person so designated in English was that layabout Saint Francis of Assisi! “Truant” started being applied to children skipping school as early as the 1400s.