Slang Comes and Goes

As you may have noticed, I’ve had a lot going on in my life in 2015. Life finally settled into a more placid routine, and I went a week without an emergency.

That’s when I realized how very tired I was. You know? It’s like doing a lot of physical work and not realizing how tired you are until you sit down.

Break Needed

I took the past couple of weeks off and played domestic goddess. I did some decorating and re-decorating, organizing and clutter eradication, watched a lot of TV, and generally took a break. I told my brother that I was playing hooky. We laughed together.

I started wondering if anyone in today’s world knew what the slang phrase “play hooky” meant. I haven’t heard anyone say it in a long time so I checked online. As I suspected, Urban Dictionary verified that it’s no longer a phrase in common parlance.

Slang Comes and Goes

What a shame. Play hooky sounds playful and a bit mischievous. What a perfect phrase to describe goofing off from work.

Play hooky is defined as “to be absent from school without an excuse.” It’s an Americanism first recorded, allegedly, around 1848. Bartlett’s Dictionary of Americanisms quotes a passage from the novel Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain: “He moped to school gloomy and sad, and took his flogging, along with Joe Harper, for playing hookey the day before.”

Whether you spell it hooky or hookey, the fun little word has gone the way of the dodo bird I guess. How many other perfectly good words have vanished from usage?

The one that comes to mind is something I still hear even though it’s archaic, bordering on obsolete except for audiophiles.

“You sound like a broken record.”

What a perfect way to describe someone who keeps saying the same thing over and over. Unfortunately, if you said it to a typical teen, you’d probably get a blank stare and a “Huh?” in response.

Takeaway Truth

What’s your favorite outdated phrase?