# truant

> English word · Adjective · IPA /ˈtɹuːənt/ · frequency rank #57,785

## Definitions
1. Shirking or wandering from business or duty; straying; hence, idle; loitering.
2. Of a student: absent from school without permission.
3. Having no real substance; unimportant, vain, worthless.

## Etymology
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”)

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/truant