# Origin or "Playing Hookie"?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-or-playing-hookie/503069>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [July 15, 2009, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-or-playing-hookie/503069 "2009-07-15T01:37:48Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Jinx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Jinx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jinx)\
**Post date:** [July 15, 2009, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-or-playing-hookie/503069/1 "2009-07-15T01:37:48Z")

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Does this phrase “playing hookie” refer to fishing? Is “hookie” a cutesy way of refering to the fishing hook, perhaps? - Jinx

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**Author:** ![Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim_r.mortiss/32/142_2.png) [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_R.Mortiss)\
**Post date:** [July 15, 2009, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-or-playing-hookie/503069/2 "2009-07-15T01:45:59Z")

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It’s always been my understanding that it was a country-bumpkin way of saying you were going fishing…TRM

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**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\
**Post date:** [July 15, 2009, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-or-playing-hookie/503069/3 "2009-07-15T01:48:07Z")

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The phrase has nothing to do with fish. From the OED:

> [@OED](#):
>
> [Cf. HOOK n. 14, v. 6, v. 13, and HOOKY-CROOKY.]
> 
> ```
> 1. to play hookey: to play truant. Also transf. colloq. (chiefly N. Amer.).
> 
> ```
> 
> 1848 in BARTLETT Dict. Amer. 1866 Harper’s Mag. May 779/1 Kate used to..entreat him not to get feruled, nor play ‘hookey’. 1867 ‘MARK TWAIN’ Amer. Drolleries 20 He would not play hookey, even when his sober judgment told him it was the most profitable thing he could do.

Hooky-crooky:

> [@OED](#):
>
> A. adj. Not straightforward, perverse, dishonest. B. n. An underhand act or practice.  
> 1830 GALT Lawrie T. V. iv. 205 He was coming round me with one of his hooky-crookies.

So you were skipping school “by hook or by crook”; in other words, through dishonest methods.