Every Holiday Was Once a Holy Day
A holiday is time off work or a trip away. The word is a worn-down holy day, from the religious feasts that were the only days off.
A holiday is a day free from work or a period spent away from home. The spelling still shows where it came from: *holy day*. For centuries the only days off were religious feasts, so the two ideas were the same thing, and the word survived the connection. American English keeps holiday for the feast days and says *vacation* for the trip.
- A day free from work. *A public holiday.*
- A period away from home (British). *Two weeks' holiday in Greece.*
- A religious festival. *A Jewish holiday.*
Word forms
| Form | Word | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Noun | holiday | A summer holiday. |
| Plural | holidays | The school holidays. |
| Verb | holiday | They holiday in Spain. |
| American | vacation | On vacation. |
| Compound | bank holiday | The August bank holiday. |
How it is used in a sentence
- We are going on holiday next week.British: on holiday, no article.
- They are on vacation in Florida.American for the same thing.
- Monday is a bank holiday.A British public holiday, named after bank closures.
Kinds of day off
- Public holiday — a day off set by law
- Bank holiday — the British term for one
- Annual leave — paid days off from an employer
- Vacation — the American word for a holiday trip
- Furlough — leave from duty, or temporary lay-off
From Old English *haligdæg*, holy day. The pronunciation shortened first and the meaning followed, until any day off could be a holiday.
Holiday or vacation?
British English uses holiday for both the public day and the trip. American English uses holiday for the public day and vacation for the trip.
Why is it called a bank holiday?
From the nineteenth-century acts that closed banks on certain days. If the banks shut, most business stopped too.