A staycation is NOT a holiday in the UK, FFS!

[FunTimes2020]

I know I am NOT being unreasonable

I agree! A staycation is when you can't afford a holiday so you stay in your own home and make the best of it with days out and maybe go to a restaurant.

A holiday (no matter where!) is a holiday. I'm taking my kids to a UK city for 3 days staying in a Premier Inn. That is our holiday!

The other word that annoys me that has been 'taken over' to make it more MC is 'Babymoon'. The word originally referred to a period of time for a mother (and father) to get to know their baby (like a honeymoon would have been a time to get to know your spouse). The idea being the mother is looked after so she can concentrate on the baby. But it is now used to mean a (usually posh) holiday that a couple go on when the women is pregnant!

@Holly60 - I think for many of us when staying at home is the only option and we can't usually afford days out etc then it very much is an approximation of a holiday!

@Viviennemary - tbf the original use of 'staycation' has been around a fair while. It is only the new usage that has crept in the last few years.

If I stay in my home for a week and just do the same old stuff, that's just staying at home. If I stay at home for a week, but have day trips to local beaches or other towns and go to museums and art galleries and country walks, and eat out most evenings, then it's a staycation.

YANBU. You "vacate" your home to go on holiday. It's "stay" as opposed to "vacate".

A staycation is where you take time off work, but stay at home.

It is not a holiday in the UK. That is still a holiday.

I think it's really quite snobbish. It seems like it implies that a UK holiday isnt a "real" holiday.

Meh, I usually go further afield so for me a UK break isn't my usual holiday.

You are correct OP.
Staycation is sleeping in your own house but going out for day trips or just puddling about at home.
If a staycation was simply holidaying in the UK that means you could potentially travel hundreds of miles and stay away for 3 weeks somewhere - that is a holiday!
There's also something very classist and snotty about saying that unless you've been overseas you haven't been on a holiday.

I've always considered it to be staying in the UK to holiday.

I have to travel further to get to some bits of the UK than to some parts of continental Europe - but distance isn't really relevant. I'll be holidaying in the same county, soon, but I have booked a hotel, even if I can get there in less than an hour.

@IVflytrap

A staycation is staying at home, but doing holiday type activities in your local area.

A holiday in the UK is a holiday.

Exactly this.

We’ve just been on holiday to Devon. A 6 hour journey there and back. Same as most other years. It was not a staycation.

Meh, I usually go further afield so for me a UK break isn't my usual holiday.

Fair enough, but it would then just be a UK break/holiday as opposed to your usual ones. That still wouldn't qualify any UK breaks that you do take as a staycation any more than it would qualify them as a cauliflower!

YANBU and I don't care how many people say "but I and everyone I know..."

You're all wrong then

FWIW I call these "pottering holidays". I stay at home and potter, whether in the house or on day trips to stuff I'm interested in. When we were short of money those were most of our AL.

@Viviennemary

What a load of rubbish. Staycation is a batty expression which has just come into use recently. If its unclear what it means we should all stop using it. People used to say we're not going away this year just having days out. Everyone knew what they meant.

The term has been around for sometime. My eldest is early 20s and we used it when she was little and I think it was around well before that. Maybe what you mean is you hadn’t heard it before it got hijacked recently during the Pandemic to mean something other than its original meaning ?

According to the OED it can mean either, so actually you are wrong!

I'm liking all the alternative British based alternatives like 'Ourgate' and 'pottering holiday'. Maybe we should just refuse to use the controversial American S word and stick to those.

We had a proper staycation last year and were at home for our 2 week summer holiday and had days out to places we'd never been to before before alternating with days at home (mainly reading in the garden). It was absolute bliss, much less hassle than any holiday and very chilled. We are lucky to live in a beautiful part of the country though, suspect if you live in Slough it wouldn't be so nice.

@CallMeMabel

According to the OED it can mean either, so actually you are wrong!

No. That just means enough wallies have misused as holidaying in the country they reside for OED to add that to the definition.

No. That just means enough wallies have misused as holidaying in the country they reside for OED to add that to the definition.

Exactly. Dictionary compilers are observers and reporters, not linguistic law-makers.

If stay cation means staying at home and doing trips out, going to local events and places of interest then we are almost permanently on holiday!
Having a day out then going home to bed isn't being on holiday in my book.
My holiday bar is much higher than that.
The first principle of a holiday is not being at home. Otherwise it's just a day off or day out.

I think OED probably knows better than any of us what words mean. Language evolves and changes all the time.

Haven't RTFT but YANBU. The implication is that UK holidays are inferior to overseas ones, which is pretty insulting to people who can't/don't want to go overseas.
A staycation is staying at home –home, not your home country –and doing 'holiday' things over a period of a week or two weeks or whatever that you've decided on and taken off work etc.

@lannistunut

I agree with you, but common parlance has it that a staycation is a UK break. This annoys me but it seems I am powerless to effect change.

Exactly the same with me. You go on UK holidays and overseas holidays. A staycation is staying at home and doing day trips.

I live in the south of England. If I went on holiday to Scotland, how would that be a "staycation"?

YANBU It really winds me up! All my holidays (apart from 2) have been in the UK and they definitely were not staycations. A staycation is staying at home and having day trips out. Completely different.

I think OED probably knows better than any of us what words mean. Language evolves and changes all the time.

But the point we're making is that a dictionary only reports on what words are widely used to mean, however mistakenly or not.

Supposing I had a fight with my neighbour which escalated until the police were called, and the police noted and reported in the proceedings that I had bitterly accused the neighbour of being 'a stupid smelly poo-poo-head'. In no way would that be considered objective proof that the neighbour is a stupid smelly poo-poo-head - it's just observing and reporting what people say, regardless of proof or veracity.

Definitely been won around re what is/isn’t a staycation. But what I don’t get is why anyone cares what Joe Public thinks about their choice of holiday . It’s makes F-all difference. You like/can only holiday in the UK? Fine. You like/can only holiday abroad? Also fine. Someone else’s opinion surely can’t affect the enjoyment of your holiday.

@callmemabel I realise that. However if people misuse and conflate words it causes confusion and a lack of clarity when it becomes common use.

Eg people start using gardening to mean visiting public gardens. Then when some mentions that they're 'gardening' are they tending to their garden or visiting a public garden? Or if enough people start to referring to meat from chicken as pork...