Vacation or Holiday?

Is it a Vacation or Holiday?

The word “Holiday” is used by the English, and many other countries, for the same purpose as the American word “Vacation”.

Some history on these words:

In the 14th century, the English word “vacacioun” was taken to mean “spare time”. It also became used for “time for contemplation”.

Holiday came from the Old English word “hāligdæg”. Hālig meant “holy” and dæg meant “day”. The result being “HolyDay”, a day of rest from working, to celebrate a religious day.

This gradually changed to Holiday, and covered various periods of time, including:

• An overseas or domestic sightseeing trip, or similar.
• A holiday at the beach.
• School Holidays.
• A rest from work, even if staying at home.
• It can also include religious days of rest. Such as Easter, Christmas etc

In the 17th century, the English people began to use the word “Vacate” to mean “to make legally void”.

Examples of this include:

• An order to vacate the property.
• To vacate a legal proceeding.
• Vacate a position in government.
• Etc.

In effect, the English used both words “vacate” and “holiday”, but for different meanings.

Examples in the English Dictionary.

In America, in the late 19th century, the word “Vacation” began to be used when rich people vacated their city houses and left for their summer residence.

This led to the word “Vacation” being used in America, for going on holiday away from their home, and then to mean, a time away from work.