holiday, n.
(ˈhɒlɪdeɪ)
Forms: α. 1 háliᵹdæᵹ, háli-dæiᵹ, 3 halidei, pl. helidawes, 4–5 halidai, -daie, -day, -daye, pl. halydawes, 4–6 halyday (5 haleday), 5–6 hallidai, -day. β. 4 holidai, 4– holiday; (also 5–9 holyday, 6 holie, hollie daie, holydaie, holy daie, daye, 6–7 holliday, -e, hollyday, -daie, holy-day, holy day, 7 holedaye, holidaie).
[OE. háliᵹdæᵹ (dat. pl. háliᵹdaᵹum), found beside the uncompounded háliᵹ dæᵹ in two words (dat. pl. hálᵹum daᵹum). In the combined form OE. á instead of being rounded to ME. ô, was shortened to a (cf. hallow, Hallowmas, halibut, halidom), giving halidai, halliday, used till 16th c. But the uncombined form was in concurrent use, and became more frequent as the distinction in signification between sense 1 and sense 2 became more marked, until, in the 16th c., holy day or holy-day became the usual form in sense 1. About the same time holiday (holliday), with o short, being a later combination and shortening of holy day, rare in late ME., took the place of the earlier haliday, which however remained in the northern dialects, where also (esp. in Scotland) the uncombined form was haly day.
It is thus difficult to divide holiday and holy-day in sense 1. Under this article are included the combined forms haliday, holiday; the uncombined forms, as well as those in which the vocalization shows that the word was analyzed, are treated under holy-day. But the habits of mediæval scribes as to the combination or separation of the elements of compounds were so irregular, and the treatment of the matter by modern editors is so uncertain, that many ME. instances might be placed under either article.]
1. A consecrated day, a religious festival. Now usually written holy-day, q.v.
| α c 950 Lindisf. Gosp. Mark iii. 2 Hueðer on haliᵹdaᵹum ᵹeᵹemde [Rushw. G. ᵹif he halᵹes dæᵹes ᵹiᵹemde]. a 1035 Laws of Cnut ii. c. 45 (Schmid) Be hali-dæiᵹes freolse. De die dominica et festis observandis. a 1225 Ancr. R. 18 Ȝif hit is halidei..siggeð Pater Noster. Ibid. 24 Ine werkedawes, heihte & twenti Pater Nosters; ine helidawes, forti. a 1300 Cursor M. 6473 Hald þou wel þin halidai. 1362 Langl. P. Pl. A. viii. 22 Þei holdeþ not heore haly⁓day [B. halidayes, C. halydaies] as holy churche [B. holi⁓cherche, C. holychurche] techeþ. c 1386 Chaucer Miller's T. 154 This Absolon..Gooth with a Sencer on the haliday. 1426 Audelay Poems 6 In clannes kepe ȝour haleday. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 222/2 Halyday (K. halliday), festivitas. c 1450 Myrc 203 Aske the banns thre halydawes. 1481 Caxton Reynard (Arb.) 28 Goo to chirche, faste and kepe your halydayes. 1530 Palsgr. 228/2 Halyday, feste. |
| β a 1375 Cursor M. 11929 (Laud) Hyt fille vpon an holiday Þat Sabot hight in Iewis lay. 1393 Langl. P. Pl. C. viii. 226 Hold wel þyn halyday [MS. M. 218 (a 1400) halt þyn holidai]. c 1475 Pict. Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 778/1 Hoc festum, a holyday. 1526 Tindale Acts xx. 6 After the ester holidayes. 1551–2 Act 5 & 6 Edw. VI, c. 3 (title), An Acte for the keping of Hollie daies and Fastinge dayes. 1661 Bp. Nicholson Catech. Pref. (1686) 8 Enjoined on the Lord's day, and every holiday to be done by every rector. 1782 Priestley Corrupt. Chr. I. iv. 336 Pagan festivals [were changed] into Christian holidays. 1844 Lingard Anglo-Sax. Ch. (1858) I. vii. 288 The Sundays came round weekly; other holidays came yearly. 1873 R. Phillimore Eccl. Law 1037 Fish carriages..shall be allowed to pass on Sundays or holidays. |
2. a. A day on which ordinary occupations (of an individual or a community) are suspended; a day of exemption or cessation from work; a day of festivity, recreation, or amusement. (In early use not separable from 1.)
| α a 1300 Cursor M. 12276 Iesus went him for to plai Wit childir on an halidai. 1478 W. Paston, Jr. in P. Lett. No. 824 III. 237 One for the halydays..and a nothyr for the workyng days. 1495 Act 11 Hen. VII, c. 22 §3 That noe artificer..working but the half day take no wagis but for the half day, and nothing for y⊇ halyday. |
| β 1540 R. Hyrde tr. Vives' Instr. Chr. Wom. i. v. (R.) On some working daies doe likewise,..specially if there bee any long space betweene the holly-daies. 1577 B. Googe Heresbach's Husb. iii. (1586) 113 b, Doo you not knowe that it is holliday, a day to dance in, and make mery at the Ale house? 1601 Cornwallyes Ess. ii. xxvi. (1631) 3 Life being like a Prentises holy day. 1601 Shakes. Jul. C. i. i. 2 Hence: home you idle Creatures, get you home: Is this a Holiday? 1782 Cowper Gilpin 8 Though wedded we have been These twice ten tedious years, yet we No holiday have seen. 1818 Byron Ch. Har. iv. cxli, Butcher'd to make a Roman holiday. 1881 Trollope Ayala's Angel III. 88 Glomax thought that Tony had been idle, and had made a holiday of the day from the first. |
b. collect. pl. or sing. A time or period of cessation from work, or of festivity or recreation; a vacation. (See also
blind man's holiday.)
| α 13.. Gaw. & Gr. Knt. 1049 Er þe halidayez holly were halet out of toun. c 1420 Pallad. on Husb. i. 176 Necessite nath neuere halyday. 1573 G. Harvey Letter-bk. 27 In the hallidais he tooke a iurni into the cuntri. |
| β 1539 Taverner Erasm. Prov. (1552) 40 With sluggers or unhardye persons, it is always holy daye. 1546 J. Heywood Prov. (1867) 83 Lightly he layde hir vp for hollie daies. 1647 Clarendon Hist. Reb. iv. §119 The Christmas holidays giving more leave and license to all kinds of people. a 1652 Brome Queene's Exch. i. ii. Wks. 1873 III. 469 To make my rest of life all holidayes. 1806–7 J. Beresford Miseries Hum. Life (1826) iii. v, My youngest boy, Tom, now at home for the holidays. 1825 Southey in Life (1849) I. 153 Blair spent one summer holidays with his mother Lady Mary, at Spa. 1863 Miss Thackeray Elizabeth (1867) 166 Will Dampier..went year by year to scramble his holiday away up and down mountain sides. |
c. Cessation from work; festivity; recreation.
to make holiday, to cease from work, to take a day's recreation.
| 1526 Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 72 We shall..rest & make holyday for this tyme. 1592 Warner Alb. Eng. viii. xlii. (1612) 204 Ill therefore might it boode at her to make our Holly-day. 1600 Dekker Gent. Craft Wks. 1873 I. 47 Ham...Lets play. Jane. I cannot liue by keeping holliday. 1714 Rowe Jane Shore (M.) When my approach has made a little holy-day. 1886 Pall Mall G. 13 Aug. 1/1 Men of business seat themselves in the railway carriages, bent on holiday. |
† d. Phr.
to speak holiday, to use choice language, different from that of ordinary life.
Cf. holiday English,
holiday terms in 4.
Obs.| 1598 Shakes. Merry W. iii. ii. 69 He writes verses, hee speakes holliday, he smels April and May. |
e. Euphemistically used for: imprisonment.
| 1901 Pall Mall Mag. Feb. 197 A sentence of a month or two..a little ‘holiday’ with food and shelter and warmth. |
3. colloq. Naut. A spot carelessly left uncoated in tarring or painting; see also
quot. 1882.
| 1785 Grose Dict. Vulg. T. s.v., A holiday is any part of a ship's bottom, left uncovered in paying it. 1840 R. H. Dana Bef. Mast viii. 18 He only thinks of leaving no holidays (places not tarred). 1882 Jago Dial. Cornw., Holidays, parts left untouched in dusting. ‘Don't leave any holidays.’ |
4. attrib. and
Comb. a. attrib. or as adj. Of, belonging to, or used on, a holiday; befitting a holiday, festive, gay, sportive; superior to the ordinary workaday sort, as
holiday centre,
holiday clothes,
holiday English,
holiday job,
holiday resort,
holiday terms. Sometimes (
esp. formerly of persons): Suited only to a holiday; not engaged in, or not fitted for, serious action; dainty; idle, trifling.
| c 1440 Jacob's Well (E.E.T.S.) 136 Comoun strumpettes, hasardourys, & such oþere, & halyday-werkerys. Ibid. 196 Þou þat hast getyn good be haly-day werkyng, haly-day chaffaryng, be false othys, be false dysceyȝtes. 1589 Pappe w. Hatchet (1844) 20 Put on your night cap, and your holiday English. 1594 Greene & Lodge Looking Glasse Wks. (Rtldg.) 125/1 She will call me rascal, rogue, runagate [etc.]..and these be but holiday-terms. 1598 Shakes. Merry W. ii. i. 2 What, haue scap'd Loue-letters in the holly-day-time of my beauty, and am I now a subiect for them? 1600 ― A. Y. L. i. iii. 14 They are but burs..throwne vpon thee in holiday-foolerie. 1610 ― Temp. ii. ii. 30 Not a holiday-foole there but would giue a peece of siluer. 1676 Wycherley Pl. Dealer iii. i, Prithee, don't look like one of our Holyday Captains now-a-days. 1695 Poor Robin's Alm. in Brand Pop. Antiq. (1870) II. 353 A Holy-day Wife, all play and no work. 1701 Addison Switzerland Wks. 1721 II. 173 Their holy-day cloaths go from Father to Son, and are seldom worn out. 1765 Foote Commissary ii. Wks. 1799 II. 29 Them holiday terms wou'd not pass in my shop. 1820 W. Tooke tr. Lucian I. 558 Put on holiday-looks and pretend to be merry. 1836 Emerson Nature i. Wks. (Bohn) II. 143 Nature is not always tricked in holiday attire. 1838 Lytton Alice 13, I must give you a holiday task to learn while I am away. 1854 Sherwood & Kelly Boys will be Boys ii. 31 That part of the country..within the nearer reach of a holiday ramble. 1866 ‘Mark Twain’ Lett. fr. Hawaii (1967) 91 In Honolulu it is not a holiday job to ship a crew. 1900 Captain II. 375/1 When Mr. Soames asked the professor to come and be holiday tutor. Ibid., Open to take a holiday tutorship. 1936 Discovery Sept. 263/1 A famous holiday-resort has been selected [as a meeting-place for the British Association]. 1944 J. S. Huxley On Living in Rev. i. iii. 6 The elaborate system of rest-houses and holiday centres and the equally elaborate arrangements for holiday transport. 1966 Economist 17 Sept. 1143/2 Very soon now a vast new ‘holiday centre’ will open in Aviemore itself, containing both accommodation of all kinds and prices and entertainments of a similarly wide variety. 1969 Times 14 June 18/4 (Advt.), Holiday job wanted..by 6th form girl. |
b. objective, as
holiday-keeper,
holiday-keeping,
holiday-maker,
holiday-making; locative, as
holiday-rejoicing adj.| 1792 W. B. Stevens Jrnl. 27 May (1965) 24 Set out in the afternoon, holiday-making to Birmingham. 1807–8 W. Irving Salmag. (1824) 369 Holiday-loving rogues. 1836 Dickens Sk. ‘Boz’ I. 323 The four clowns..may be all very well for the low-minded holiday makers. 1855 Geo. Eliot in Fraser's Mag. LII. 60/1 The good people who come to take dinner..here, by way of holiday making. 1859 Chambers's Bk. of Days 16 May I. 643 The holyday-maker and his partner. 1890 Daily News 8 Apr. 6/2 The streets were thronged with holiday keepers. 1896 Ibid. 3 Feb. 8/4 To say nothing of the loss from holiday-keeping. 1969 Daily Tel. 4 Jan. 18/6 There is one valuable holiday-making aid to the Gulf and the Bay of Naples. |
c. Comb. holiday camp, an informally run camp for a holiday; now
esp. a complex of chalets, places of entertainment, etc., designed for family holidays;
holiday course [
= G.
ferienkurs, F.
cours de vacances, etc.], a series of lectures, classes, etc. which is held during a school or college vacation;
holiday home, (
a) a place where poor persons, or children whose parents cannot take charge of them, can be accommodated, sometimes at little or no cost to themselves, for a period of holiday; (
b) a house where people spend their holidays;
† holidayman,
-woman, a man or woman taking a holiday, an idler or trifler;
holiday task, homework to be done during the holidays.
| 1870 R. St. J. Corbet (title) The *holiday camp: three days' picnic: story for boys and girls. 1927 Cornh. Mag. Feb. 225 Of the many thousands of children who were sent into the country..25% stayed for two weeks or more in the Holiday Camps. These Camps are an interesting feature of the Copenhagen holiday system. Ibid. 226 Life in a Holiday Camp is always the simplest, and is spent, so far as possible, in the open air. Ibid. 231 The Danes do not regard the Holiday Camp system as an ideal system. 1940 Manch. Guardian Weekly 1 Nov. 320/1 Then there were the Holiday Camps, cheap, social, with every modern convenience and all the modern pleasures. Their official hosts and hostesses mapped out the day with a colossal time-table of delights. 1949 M. Dickens Flowers on Grass vii. 181 I've got to go to a holiday camp to do some sketches of happy campers for publicity. 1958 Times 8 Sept. 6/1 A steel cabinet in the security block at Butlin's holiday camp at Ayr was forced at the weekend. |
| 1906 Teacher 30 June 616/3 The Greifswald Holiday Course..the oldest of the German *holiday courses..has now been in existence for fifteen years. |
| 1887 Girl's Own Paper 22 Oct. 48/3 A lady who has a large house and grounds would give a lady of small means a ‘*holiday home’. 1931 Geography Sept. 219 The hostel..is more akin to the ‘dak-bungalow’ or the ‘cold harbour’ than to the rest-camp or holiday-home. 1937 Discovery June p. xlvi/2 (Advt.), Schools, coaching colleges, holiday homes. 1972 Guardian 1 Sept. 8/6 The ‘white settlers’ who buy croft houses for use as holiday homes. 1973 Ibid. 28 May 4/1 The Welsh Language Society is planning..to try to prevent the sale of houses as second or holiday homes. |
| 1548 Udall Erasm. Par. Luke x. 105 b, Although they seme as *holidayemenne, to repose theymselfes from all corporall businesse. 1600 Surflet Countrie Farme 837 More fit for holidaie men, milke sops, and cowards. |
| 1827 J. Leech Let. in W. P. Frith John Leech (1891) I. i. 12, I think I shall get promoted when Dr Russell sees my *Holiday Task. 1899 Kipling Stalky 180 They have a holiday task..which..none..will ever look at. 1912 E. W. Hornung Fathers of Men xi. 130 So they give you saying-lessons for holiday tasks at your school? Ibid. xii. 137 He'd no right to set us a holiday task of his own like that. 1930 C. Mackenzie April Fools vii. 138 I'm reading ‘Homes without Hands’ for a holiday task. |
Hence
holiday v. intr., to take a holiday; to go on a pleasure-excursion; whence
ˈholidayer, a holiday-maker.
ˈholidayish a., of a character befitting a holiday, festive.
ˈholidayism, the practice of making holiday, devotion to holidays.
| 1869 Contemp. Rev. XII. 629 The hero..meets an artist..likewise *holidaying. 1871 Carlyle in Mrs. C.'s Lett. II. 311 Craik from Belfast..was here holidaying. 1887 Pall Mall G. 29 Dec. 5 The prospective bridegroom holidays in Scotland for three weeks. |
| 1886 Birmingham Weekly Post 7 Aug. 4/6 We hear..that many *holidayers spend their time in suburban public-houses. |
| 1886 Gd. Words 247 Some more or less..*holidayish kind of work. |
| 1886 Lewis in Pop. Sci. Monthly XXIX. 708 Under the working of the civil law..Sunday has tended and must tend to *holidayism. |
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Add:
[4.] [c.] holiday loading Austral., an addition to holiday pay to compensate for overtime earnings lost.
| [1982 Herald (Melbourne) 9 Nov. 3/4 Sir Charles also proposed a reduction in what he called ‘crazy’ leave levels and holiday pay loadings.] 1986 Telegraph (Brisbane) 24 June 3/2 (heading) Axe *holiday loading. 1988 Financial Times 26 Jan. (Survey section) p. vii/3 Look at ‘holiday loading’: Australian workers are paid 17 per cent extra during their vacations because of the overtime they forgo. |