The Weekend Was Invented by Factories
The weekend is the break at the end of the working week. It is barely a century old, and Henry Ford helped make it standard.
The weekend is the pause at the end of the working week, normally Saturday and Sunday. It is a modern invention: British mills began giving Saturday afternoon off in the nineteenth century, and Ford adopted the five-day week in 1926, partly on the reasoning that workers with free time would buy more cars.
- Saturday and Sunday. *A long weekend.*
- To spend a weekend somewhere. *They weekended in Bath.*
- Weekend as a modifier. *Weekend plans.*
Word forms
| Form | Word | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Noun | weekend | A quiet weekend. |
| Plural | weekends | Most weekends. |
| Adjective | weekend | Weekend traffic. |
| Compound | long weekend | A long weekend away. |
| Related | weekday | A weekday morning. |
How it is used in a sentence
- See you at the weekend.British preposition.
- See you on the weekend.American preposition.
- It is a bank holiday weekend.Three days in Britain.
Weekends around the world
- Saturday and Sunday — most of the world
- Friday and Saturday — much of the Middle East
- Friday only — historically common in several countries
- Half-holiday — the Victorian Saturday afternoon that started it
- Long weekend — extended by a public holiday
First recorded in the 1870s in northern England, where the Saturday half-day began. The word is a plain compound of *week* and *end*.
At the weekend or on the weekend?
At is British, on is American. Both are correct in their own varieties.
Why is the weekend two days?
It grew from the Saturday half-holiday, and the five-day week spread through industry in the 1920s and 1930s.