Holidays

How to spell holidays

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce holidays

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does holidays mean?

1. nounPeriods of time away from work or school, often spent travelling or relaxing.

Holidays in a sentence

• The children count down the days until the summer holidays begin.

• We are saving for our holidays in Spain next year.

Where does holidays come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word goes straight back to the Old English haligdæg, which literally combined halig, meaning 'holy', with dæg, meaning 'day'. In its earliest use it named a religious festival, a sacred day set aside from ordinary work for worship. Over the centuries the two halves fused into a single word, and as the days off from labour mattered as much as the worship, the meaning broadened to cover any period of rest or recreation. By the 1800s 'holidays' had come to mean an extended break away from work or school, and in British use especially a vacation trip. The buried word 'holy' is the spelling clue, though the modern pronunciation has worn the link almost smooth, which is why the first vowel is so easy to slip on.

How the word is built

• holi- (from holy/halig: sacred)
• day (from dæg: day)
• -s (plural)