# to play hookie (truant)



## badgrammar

How do you say "playing hookie" in your language?  That means not going to school (also: "cutting classes").

In French it is "sécher les cours", I believe.


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## jazyk

In Portuguese (Brazil at least) _enforcar/matar aula,_ slightly old-fashioned _cabular aula_ and very old-fashioned_ gazetear._


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## Hakro

In Finnish: *kraapata* or *skraapata*


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## Whodunit

In German, it's "*schwänzen*."


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## DrWatson

Hakro said:


> In Finnish: *kraapata* or *skraapata*



Really? I've never heard that word before... It's probably Helsinki dialect, at least it sounds like it.

A more common word could be *pinnata*. And the word I use most often is *lintsata*. I don't think there are literal translations for these words.


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## badgrammar

Sorry, I should have asked in my first post, but can you give us a literal translation of the sayings as well?

In French "Sécher les cours" is literally "to dry/cut classes", I guess "sécher" here would be understood as "to cut" in this context.

In English "Playing hookie/hookey" would seem related to 19th century expressions like "By hook or by crook", so it is something crooked or underhanded...


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## robbie_SWE

In Swedish it's "*att skolka*". 

 robbie


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## spakh

In Turkish
okulu kırmak
okulu asmak
okuldan kaçmak
What we always do.


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## jazyk

> In Portuguese (Brazil at least) _enforcar/matar aula,_ slightly old-fashioned _cabular aula_ and very old-fashioned_ gazetear._



Enforcar aula - to hang (as a criminal)/to string up class
Matar aula - to kill class
Cabular/gazetear - to shrink from something

Funny that my dictionary doesn't have cabular as a transitive verb  , only as intransitive, but I've never heard cabular intransitively in this sense.


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## Jana337

Czech: Chodit za školu. = To go behind the school. 
Záškolák - behind-the-schooler. 

Jana


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## Kraus

Italian: marinare la scuola o tagliare (but there's a different translation for every dialect: fare schisa in Piedmontese, fa' filone in Neapolitan and so on...)


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## MingRaymond

Mandarin: 翹課 
Cantonese: 走堂


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## linguist786

Whodunit said:


> In German, it's "*schwänzen*."


We used to say "blaumachen" when we were at school. Was ist deiner Meinung darüber?


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## avalon2004

Firstly, here in the UK we always say either *"skive (off)"* or *"bunk off"*. I had never heard of "playing hookie" before this thread! The formal terms used by teaching staff are "*playing truant*" and "*absconding from school*", which would both sound quite out of place in an informal situation!

The most standard translation in Spanish is *"hacer novillos"* but according to my dictionary of colloquialisms there are other ways of saying it such as:
"*irse de pinta*" in Mexico 
"*hacerse la rata/la rabona*" in Argentina and Uruguay
"*hacerse la vaca*" in Peru
"*hacer la cimarra*" in Chile
"*capar clase*" in Colombia

_NB: I can only assume the regional varieties are correct, I've never heard them._


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## avalon2004

In Greek the set expression is *κάνω κοπάνα* _[káno kopána] _which literally means "to do truancy".


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## Whodunit

linguist786 said:


> We used to say "blaumachen" when we were at school. Was ist deiner Meinung dazu?


 
Have you ever been in a German school (and did you need to _blaumachen_ there)? 

Well, yes, the word can be used in German, but it sounds quite old-fashioned. Its translation is "to make blue."

To describe the meaning of word "schwänzen" (which is much more common nowadays), a very thorough explanation is required. It is akin to "Schwanz" (tail), and was first actively used in Rotwelsch (schwentzen) in the 18th century as a word for "to loiter (crime not necessarily implied)/hang around," and Luther used it for "to strut." These days, it is used as an equivalent of "to play hookie."


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## badgrammar

avalon2004 said:


> Firstly, here in the UK we always say either *"skive (off)"* or *"bunk off"*. I had never heard of "playing hookie" before this thread! The formal terms used by teaching staff are "*playing truant*" and "*absconding from school*", which would both sound quite out of place in an informal situation!
> 
> The most standard translation in Spanish is *"hacer novillos"* but according to my dictionary of colloquialisms there are other ways of saying it such as:
> "*irse de pinta*" in Mexico
> "*hacerse la rata/la rabona*" in Argentina and Uruguay
> "*hacerse la vaca*" in Peru
> "*hacer la cimarra*" in Chile
> "*capar clase*" in Colombia
> 
> _NB: I can only assume the regional varieties are correct, I've never heard them._


Funny the difference in BE/AE here, I'd never heard of "skive/bunk off" for that, even "absconding from school" would be over the heads of many Americans . 

Out of curiosity, what do the Spanish version translate to literally

Whodunit, I was curious about the origin of scwänzen, but I was too shy to ask!

Thanks all for your answers so far!


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## avalon2004

Come to think of it, we also use the term "to skip school" in England.

Another term used in Chile is "*hacer la chancha*", which translates into English as "to do/make the (female) pig" strangely enough!!

The other phrases really do not translate literally at all:*

Hacer novillos* = "to do/make young bulls"
*Irse de pinta* = there is just no way to translate this! "to go off on appearance"???
*Hacerse la rata/rabona/vaca* = "to become the rat/camp-follower(??)/cow"
*Hacer la cimarra *= there is literally no translation, "la cimarra" does not have any meaning on its own that I know of.
*Capar clase* = "to castrate(!) class"

They sound ridiculous I know, but if anyone else feels they can be translated literally then please try!


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## Frank06

Hi,

In *Dutch*:
_spijbelen_ (1762, origins unknown) 
_brossen_ (marked in the dico as Belgian Dutch). _Brossen_ comes from Wallonian 'brosser', 'to walk in the woods, but not on the paths'.

Groetjes,

Frank


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## ThomasK

_I wanted to start this thread, but I am late. What I miss here, are some explanations of words or phrases. If anyone feels like explaining the Turkish expression, the Finnish, etc., please do !_

Now I thought I had not read about the English word *playing truant*/_*truancy*_ here, but I did come across it later on; it refers to beggars, vagabonds, _etymonline.org_ tells us,  

The Dutch _*spijbelen*_ is supposed to refer to a bum, but no further reference can be found. I have also heard of *haagschool doen*, lit. to play hedgeschool, which I'd associate with hiding - and the English absconding, maybe the 'skiving'/ 'bunking' off.


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## Rallino

spakh said:


> In Turkish
> 1. okulu kırmak
> 2. okulu asmak
> 3. okuldan kaçmak
> What we always do.



_1. okulu kırmak_ literally means "to break/shatter the school".
_2. okulu asmak_ also _dersi asmak_ literally mean "to hang the school" or "to hang the class".

_3. okuldan kaçmak_ is a bit different. It litterally means "to run away from the school", and it means, to attend the first two or three classes, and then leave the school to hang out with friends or maybe in order to attend the classes at the private institutes (called: Dershane).


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## sakvaka

ThomasK said:


> _I wanted to start this thread, but I am late. What I miss here, are some explanations of words or phrases. If anyone feels like explaining the Turkish expression, the Finnish, etc., please do !_



The Finnish _pinnata_ has been borrowed from Swedish. The modern meaning was born in soldier slang in the 1920s.

_pinna_ - to pin up [on the wall], to tighten -> to [com]press, to steal, to cheat -> escaping duties

Source: Häkkinen, Kaisa: Nykysuomen etymologinen sanakirja (2004), p. 926

No explanations for _lintsata_. I also agree that the latter is by far the most common.


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## ThomasK

Well, Finnish seems more peaceful than Turkish. ;-) Any idea why there is so much violence in those phrases, Rallino? (Thanks)


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## Rallino

ThomasK said:


> Well, Finnish seems more peaceful than Turkish. ;-) Any idea why there is so much violence in those phrases, Rallino? (Thanks)



Absolutely no idea! ^^


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## Encolpius

*magyar*

the formal expression is: *iskolát kerül* [iskola school, iskolát accusative + kerül go round]
the most common, slang: *lóg *[literally: to hang]

*Slovene *

špricati [form the German spritzen, i.e to spray]

*Polish*:  chodzić na wagary, wagarować [form Latin vagor, vagus, i.e. to wander, to roam]

*Russian*: динамить [interesting etymology, <  dynamo] [can you teach me how to mark the stress on the Cyrillic keyboard?]


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## rusita preciosa

Encolpius said:


> *Russian*: динамить [interesting etymology, < dynamo] [can you teach me how to mark the stress on the Cyrillic keyboard?]


This is really not the term: динамить is a sland for to lead on / to mislead

Top cut class is *прогуливать* [progulivat'] - lit. to stoll though / to have a good time through


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## mataripis

This word is not known to many .It means "absent" and the Tagalog word is "Pagliban" or "Lumiban" but sometimes They said it is "Pagtakas".


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## apmoy70

avalon2004 said:


> In Greek the set expression is *κάνω κοπάνα* _[káno kopána] _which literally means "to do truancy".


Previous generations would say «κάνω σκασιαρχείο» ['kano skasiar'çi.o] («σκασιαρχείο» [skasiar'çi.o] (neut. noun): v. «σκά(ζ)ω» ['ska(z)o] < Classical «σχάζω» 'sxắzō --> lit. _to slit open_, in MG, _to burst, let go, flee_ + v. «ἄρχω» ắrxō --> _to rule, be leader of_), while in army slang it's «παίρνω άδεια απ'τη σημαία» ['perno 'aði.a apti si'me.a] --> _to take leave from the flag_ (instead of following army regulations and procedures)


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## Johnny Milutinović

Here is my contribution to this thread. 
In Serbia, we say
*бежати с часова* (> бежати _to_ _run away from, flee_; _с часова_ from the classes)


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## itreius

In Croatia it's _*markirati *_and _*markati*_.


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## puny_god

In Filipino, we'd often use "tumakas sa klase", literally to escape from class. 
The Japanese have saboru サボる but I don't know the origin of that or why the first 2 Kana are written in Katakana.


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## clansaorsa

In Aberdeen (Scotland) we used the word 'plunk' for truant. It was said to have come, as many north-east Scots words do, from sea-trading with the Netherlands and was a corruption of their word 'plenken' meaning to play truant. Perhaps a Dutch speaker could help.


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## Dymn

In *Catalan *we say _fer campana _("to do bell"). In Western Catalonia I've heard they say _fer pila_ ("to do pile, or battery" (?)), and in Valencia _fer fugina (_probably related to _fugir _"to flee, escape").


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## Penyafort

Dymn said:


> In *Catalan *we say _fer campana _("to do bell"). In Western Catalonia I've heard they say _fer pila_ ("to do pile, or battery" (?)), and in Valencia _fer fugina (_probably related to _fugir _"to flee, escape").


In Aragonese there is also* fer fuina* (_or _*fuineta*), and while it can also be related to _fu(y)ir_, the _fuina _is also an animal (_fagina _or _fuïna _too in Catalan, 'beech marten' in English), so it might be related to tbis, like saying 'to do as a marten'.


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## Agró

In Pamplonese Spanish:
*hacer borota*
_*hacer pirola*_

Unknown origin to me.


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## AutumnOwl

robbie_SWE said:


> In Swedish it's "*att skolka*".
> 
> robbie


Skolka means to stay hidden/hide away. It's related to the English word 
skulk with the same mean meaning, which seems to be derived from the Scandinavian word, and which in it's turn is derived from an old German word.


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## Roxxxannne

In American English 'play hooky' sounds old-fashioned to me.  It's apparently also spelled _hookey_ and _hookie_, but _hooky_ looks "right" to me (but that's just me).

 'Skip school,' 'cut classes,' and 'ditch school' are what I've heard more recently (where 'recently' = 20 years ago).


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