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schwänzen

based on: Schwanz
hat geschwänzt
schwänzte

Meanings

1.
to skip (school)
(Colloquial term for skipping a lesson or entire school day. Also works for a meeting but then it sounds adolescent. The word probably ties in with "sway" and "swing".)

Word Family

Root: *su̯enk-

The core idea of this root was:

bending, swaying, swinging

It’s still quite visible in German words like schwanken and schwenken and even in Schwanz (tail). Just think of a dog waving it :).
The adjective schwach started out as bendable, from where it is not far to its current meaning weak.

The English etymological sources I am using do not mention this root.
But according to the German sources, it would be the origin of the English words to swing, to sway and possibly also swag.

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