Since 1992
Print and digital marketing
By Barbara McAllister
Word of the Day: Vacation
Is your mind feeling vacant? Maybe it’s time to vacate the premises and take a vacation. The root of the words vacation, vacant and vacate, all stem from the Latin “vacare” — to be empty or free. Related words include evacuate and vacuum. Eventually the word vacation came to mean a period of leisure, free of cares or work. Unless you speak British English. Our British counterparts use the word vacation to mean a period of time when university is closed or maybe when a position or office is vacated. People in the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand speak of the period of free time we call a vacation as a holiday. North Americans use the term holiday to mean a time of public or religious commemoration.
Studies show the type of vacation you choose often reflects your personality. Extroverts tend to go to an ocean or seaside getaway, while introverts are more likely to head inland for a mountain vacation.
The United States is the only developed country that does not have legally required paid vacation and holidays. In the United States, time off is provided at the discretion of the employer, usually dependent on the amount of time an employee has been in his or her job. Every member of the European Union has at least 20 days mandated leave and many countries have as many as 30 days mandated time off. It could be worse. American schools didn’t even have summer vacations before the Civil War. Schools in urban areas were basically year-round. In rural communities, school was out during spring planting and fall harvest. The long summer breaks didn’t come about until the early 20th century.
