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![Covering a coworker's desk with aluminum foil is a common office prank[citation needed]](/Image:Office_foil_prank.jpg.html)
A prank is defined as "acting like a clown or buffoon" or "dressing showily", or alternatively, "a ludicrous or grotesque act done for fun and amusement"[1]. Pranks can take the forms of practical jokes, hoaxes, or even petty criminal activity, such as the theft of traffic cones.[2]
In recent years, the term "pranking" has also come to mean the ringing of a mobile telephone and hanging up before it is answered, to alert the mobile phone's user without having to pay a network connection charge.
[edit] Etymology
The term "prank" is believed to derive from the Middle English pranken, to make people run away, or perhaps from Middle Dutch pronken (from pronk, show, display) and from Middle Low German prunken (from prank, display).[3]
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