I was interested to not that it derives ultimately from Latin "tardus"=slow=tardy.
It reminded me of excuse a third grader gave his anxious mother for being late
getting home from school in a Boston suburb. He had taken a "short long-cut".

And speaking of tarrying till you're tardy...

And so tardy that you become truant...

Do we still have truant officers around anymore? I never hear about 'em anymore...

I heard about them just today. I was home sick and surfing the tube when I ran across a reporter interviewing a woman waiting to sit in the courtroom where Michael Jackson is on trial. The reporter commented that there were far fewer people waiting to get in since the truant officers had come by.