truant [ME] In the 13th century a truant was someone who begged out of choice rather than necessity, what the Elizabethans called ‘a sturdy beggar’. The idea of voluntary idleness led to its application in the later medieval period to children staying away from school without permission. The word came from Old French, but is probably ultimately of Celtic origin, related to Welsh truan and Scottish Gaelic truaghan ‘wretched’.