Date: Wed, 20 Sep 1995 20:39:15 EDT
From: Larry Horn LHORN[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]YALEVM.CIS.YALE.EDU
Subject: Re: Terminology of unexcused absences
Just checked with our resident 7th grader (Hamden Middle School, CT), who
immediately volunteered 'cut' and after some thought (i.e. during a
commercial) came up with 'ditching a class' (of course that could have come
from a TV show), but when I asked him about sluffing (or sloughing), his
response was basically that of Natalie's students or Bill Labov's subjects
confronted with positive 'anymore'. I guess 'cutting a class' is, like
'cool', one of those slang terms that seem to last forever (half a century,
anyway) without losing their status as slang. Permanent ephemera...
Larry