truant

Meaning

Adj

1. (not-comparable) Shirking or wandering from business or duty; straying; hence, idle; loitering.
2. (not-comparable, specifically) Of a student: absent from school without permission.
3. (not-comparable, obsolete) Having no real substance; unimportant, vain, worthless.

Noun

1. An idle or lazy person; an idler.
2. (specifically) A student who is absent from school without permission; hence (figurative), a person who shirks or wanders from business or duty.
3. (obsolete) Synonym of sturdy beggar (“a person who was fit and able to work, but lived as a beggar or vagrant instead”); hence, a worthless person; a rogue, a scoundrel.

Verb

1. (intransitive) Also used with the impersonal pronoun it (dated): to shirk or wander from business or duty; (specifically) of a student: to be absent from school without permission; to play truant.
2. (obsolete, transitive) To idle away or waste (time).

Synonyms

hooky player

awol

shirker

lazy person

play truant

nonattender

no-show

lazy fellow

quitter

absent

skipper

skiver

skulker

AWOL

scutter

runaway

deserter

fugitive

goldbrick

idle

idler

lazy

loitering

Translations

Schulschwänzer

οκνηρός

Bummler

spijbelend

kaçak

aylak

spijbelaar

τεμπέλης

novillero

Schwänzerin

φυγόπονος

σκασιάρχης

φυγόσχολος

élève

Schwänzer

Pronounced as (IPA)

/ˈtɹuːənt/

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English: truant

Cognate with French: truand

Cognate with Breton: truc

Cognate with Irish: trogán

Cognate with Middle Dutch: trawant

Cognate with Occitan: truan

Cognate with Portuguese: truão

Cognate with Scottish Gaelic: trudanach

Cognate with Spanish: truhan

Cognate with Welsh: tru

Inherited from Middle English: truaunten

Cognate with French: truander

Inherited from Middle English: truaunt

In summary

The adjective and noun are derived from Middle English truant, truand, truaund (“(adjective) idle; tending to vagrancy (uncertain; may be a use of the noun); (noun) beggar; mendicant friar; vagrant, wanderer; worthless person, rogue, scoundrel; one who is absent without leave, truant; one who shirks duties”), from Old French truant, truand (“(adjective) beggarly; roguish; (noun) a beggar, vagabond; a rogue”) (modern French truand), probably of Celtic origin, possibly from Gaulish *trugan, or from Breton truan (“wretched”), from Proto-Celtic *térh₁-tro-m, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *terh₁- (“to drill, pierce; to rub; to turn”).
Cognates
* Breton truc (“beggar”)
* Irish trogán, trogha (“destitute”)
* Middle Dutch trawant, trouwant, truwant
* Occitan truan
* Portuguese truão
* Scottish Gaelic trudanach (“vagabond”), truaghan (“wretched”)
* Spanish truhan
* Welsh tru, truan (“wretched”)