Follow-up on sluff - play hooky, slack off

[Wilson Gray]

On Tue, Aug 9, 2011 at 1:21 AM, Benjamin Barrett <gogaku at ix.netcom.com> wrote:
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> Sender: Â  Â  Â  American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster: Â  Â  Â  Benjamin Barrett <gogaku at IX.NETCOM.COM>
> Subject: Â  Â  Â Follow-up on sluff - play hooky, slack off
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> The ADS list search for 1999 to today seems to be down, but the =
> 1992-1999 search is working.=20
>
> 1. On the ADS list on 5 February 1994 =
> (http://www.americandialect.org/americandialectarchives/feb94.html), =
> Donald M. Lance reports being told by Jan Brunvand on the ADS list:
>
> -----
> that in the public schools kids "sluff" school -- none of that hooky =
> stuff. And the school bulletins use this term in discussing school =
> policy. Known elsewhere? Widespread? (I don't keep up with the modern =
> world and don't know these modren terms.) 'Sluff' is the usual term =
> here. I 'played hooky' thirty years ago, but my wife says she used =
> 'sluff.' She graduated from high school in 1966.
> -----
>
> 2. Keith Russell says on that same day:
> -----
> We did have the word 'sluff-off', but that meant something more like 'to =
> be lazy, not do one's homework, or generally not try very hard' or 'to =
> not do something.' "Did you do your homework?" "No, I sluffed it off."
> -----
>
> 3. On that same day, Charles F Juengling reports "sluff off" meaning "be =
> lazy, not do one's homework, or generally not try very hard."
>
> 4. The following day, Lew Sanborne lsanbore reports "we used "sluff" to =
> mean "ditched school," and also in "sluff off," meaning to slack off, or =
> to not do what one should have been doing."
>
> 5. The Urban Dictionary =
> (http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=3Dsluff) has a slew of =
> definitions for "sluff," including: "Used most commonly in the Western =
> U.S., sluffing (probably derived from the word 'to slough') is =
> synonymous with skipping class, cutting class, or ditching class." One =
> example given by a different person is "Dude, your such a sluff! " One =
> other relevant definition and example is: "When your drug dealer is late =
> in delivering the goods / Damn, I was supposed to get hooked up an hour =
> ago, why does Joe have to sluff?"
>
> These meanings of sluff and sluff off are not in the OED, nor is sluffer =
> (an alternative to "sluff" as a person).
>
> 6. With one possible exception, the earliest citation I see on Google =
> for "sluffer" (being the easiest to search for, though probably a =
> derivative of "sluff") is 1 February 2001 and it has the verb "sluff" as =
> well:=20
>
> -----
> One who sluffs off because he's in a small church or position will =
> likely not have the opportunity to handle a bigger church or more =
> responsible position.
>
> One who is growing is getting better and better at things, able to =
> handle a bigger and more responsible load. He's not a sluffer or parker.
>
> (http://www.stevedavis.org/chapter%2019.html)
> -----
>
> 7. That possible exception is from 1924 in "The Field Artillery =
> Journal," January-February edition, in a poem and is repeated in the =
> poem:
>
> -----
> I'm a slouch and a slop and a sluffer,=20
> And my ears they are covered with hair,=20
> And I frequent inhabit the guardhouse,=20
> I'll be "priv." until "fini la guerre."
>
> =
> (http://sill-www.army.mil/famag/1924/JAN_FEB_1924/JAN_FEB_1924_FULL_EDITIO=
> N.pdf)
> -----
>
> This seems to match the meaning, but is so far removed in time from all =
> the other hits that it seems dubious. Could this have been military =
> slang that surfaced in Lance's wife's high school in the 1960s?
>
> Benjamin Barrett
> Seattle, WA=
>
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>

FWIW, IME, _sluff off_ covers exactly the same semantic field as _fuck
off_.  It's always intransitive. You can't say "sluff it off" any more
than you can say "fuck it off."

He was getting good grades / doing well at work, till he started
sluffing off / fucking off.

Transitive "sluff" - without "off" - has the same meaning as "discard"
in the playing-bridge-or-any-other-variant-of-whist sense.

"Playing hooky" is, 99.44% of the time, from pre-school through grad
school, "cutting school" / "cutting class." Occasionally, it's "hook":
"hook school / hook class" = "cut school" / cut class."

AFAIK, the use of "cut school" or "hook school" instead of "play
hooky" was/is? peculiar to St. Louis BE, likewise WRT _sluff_
"discard" as a useful strategy in a game of whist.

Till I read Benjamin's post, I was unaware of the existence of the
spelling, _sluff_. I would have written only  _slough_ for any meaning
of [sl^f] whatever, had the occasion to do that ever arisen.

Youneverknow.

BTW, my spell-check doesn't recognize _sluff_, either.

--
-Wilson
-----
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint
to come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-Mark Twain

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