Welcome to Learned, a short, weekly look at language, education, and everything else under the sun. I’m Joel, amateur linguist and professional slacker. This week, we're all about vacation.
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May 4 is, in Japan, known as Greenery Day. It doesn't really mean anything, not in the way Christmas or Veteran's Day does. Instead, it was just decided that another holiday was needed on the Japanese calendar and if they could slot it in next to a couple of other holidays (May 5 is Children's Day and May 6 is Constitution Day) for an extended break, so much the better. So, some bureaucrats got together and came up with a day in which people could be encouraged to commune with nature. And thus, Greenery Day.
“It’s a Trap!” Wait, that’s not what we’re talking about? Photo by Brian McGowan on Unsplash
However, if you're reading this from anywhere in the English-speaking or Geek-speaking worlds, you probably know May 4 better as Star Wars Day, because, ahem, May the fourth be with you. Always. In fact, because Jedism has been accepted as a religion in some countries, it might be better as a holy day - a day sacred to those of a certain point of view.
All of which got me to thinking about two words we use almost interchangeably: holiday and vacation. I'm personally of that very pedantic school of thought that argues that there are no true synonyms in English. Everything has some nuance or other, whether that nuance is derived from a word's etymology or just its literal meaning.
Etymology Online tells us that holiday comes from holy day around the 16th century. It goes on to add:
...in 14c. meaning both "religious festival" and "day of exemption from labor and recreation,"...Happy holidays is from mid-19c., in British English, with reference to summer vacation from school. As a Christmastime greeting, by 1937, American English, in Camel cigarette ads.
I think this is where things start to get interesting. Referencing the entirety of summer vacation as holidays is, I think, where the confusion and synonymy begins.
Here's vacation:
late 14c., "freedom from obligations, leisure, release" (from some activity or occupation)
With both words containing the same meaning from around the 14th century onward, any further etymological nuance must come from their source languages. Holiday is from Old English, while vacation is from Latin via French. The histories offered by Etymology Online also hint at how their standard usages arose in different countries, which, to be honest, is why we have so many nearly-synonymous words to begin with.
Interestingly, this was one of the first results for both holiday and vacation on Unsplash. Photo by Mohamed Ajufaan on Unsplash
And that brings me back to language change and variation of use; one of the more fun aspects of living in Japan, for me, is that most of the English speakers I interact with are from different parts of the globe. As a result, my natural flavor of English (American Southwest, 1980s) changed to include words and phrases more readily understood by the group of mixed-origin speakers I found myself enmeshed within. Words like holiday.
I'm pretty confident in asserting that, as a child, I would have spoken only of going on vacation or taking a vacation and anything else, say a mid-week break from school would be a day off.
I'm far less certain of this, but I think many U.K. English speakers (and Australian and New Zealander) would use holiday in place of vacation and would include referring to that mid-week break as a holiday as well, but I could be wrong.
Tomato, tomahto, right?
I did look at my favorite Japanese dictionary, just to see if it could throw any extra light on how we use vacation and holiday. Jisho.org returns more-or-less the same results for both words with one interesting exception: only vacation brings up results referring to travel.
And that's all I've got for this week, as I spend this May 4 watching Star Wars and playing outside amidst the greenery, I'm pretty happy to be on vacation. Or holiday. Vacation?
Be on the lookout for The Glossary this coming Friday (for subscribers only).
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Stay safe, stay curious. Learn something.
Joel