It's not bloody half term!

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Why / when did every school holiday become half term?

The half term holidays are February, Whitsun and October, not Easter, Christmas and thr summer.

People keep saying "Happy half term" or "Enjoy the half term" etc. Why is this an accepted thing?

It irritates me too, but I fear it's a battle that is already halfway-lost.

Like 'lay' instead of 'lie'. Having a lay down, having a lay in ... it's become the norm. I think 'half term' will soon be the usual phrase for all school holidays.

I haven't seen that thread, but I hate that pronouncing the letter H 'haitch' is becoming the norm. It was always 'aitch' to me the other way sounds horrible.

How can that be correct? It’s the “half of term” with a “half term” or “half term break” in the middle.

In Scotland we do t have half term but we have school holidays
So Feb holidays... October..Easter..summer Xmas

Half term is self explanatory . It's half way through a term.
I correct our kids so they understand about the terms etc but if an adult said it I'd probably just think bad things about them!

I'm not alone!

I think it's laziness e.g. harder to say. Also they refer to each portion as a term so there are 6 terms now when there used to be 3.

Is it not the same as people saying they're "on holiday" when taking annual leave, but actually aren't going away at all, just having the day off? Or "taking the kids to the swings" when actually it should be referred to the park or playground?
It really doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things. If anyone corrected me saying half term when it's end of term, I'd 100% be eyerolling at the pettiness level.

Having said all that, I do refer to this particular break as easter holidays, you'll be thrilled to know!

Annoying. There are only 2 'half terms' usually. One between Christmas holiday and Easter, and one between Summer Holiday and Christmas. The break between Easter and Summer holiday is Whitsun.

I’d say in the majority of cases, they know I’m referring to the upcoming school holiday. If I meant one further on in the year, I’d say “May half term” etc.

There's a whole slew of them.

Nonplussed caught me out last week. I thought meant confused/gone out /not sure how to react - Dh recently used to mean unfazed - taking it in their stride. Led to a very confused cross purpose conversation till I asked him what he'd meant.

On-line dictionary
nonplussed
/nɒnˈplʌst/

adjective

1. 1.so surprised and confused that one is unsure how to react."Henry looked completely nonplussed" Similar 5.confuse,bewildered, bemused, puzzled,perplexed,baffled, stumped,mystified, stupefied, muddled, befuddled, fuddled, dumbfounded,at sea,at a loss, at sixes and sevens,thrown (off balance),taken aback, disoriented, disconcerted, discomposed ,troubled etc

2.INFORMAL•NORTH AMERICAN
not disconcerted; unperturbed.
"I remember students being nonplussed about the flooding in the city, as they had become accustomed to it over the years"

We are both UK British but DH was adamant I was wrong and it had always meant the second - he watches' a lot of american you tubers so I think he's picked it up there - were as I read a lot - often British often classics. Ironically he was driven to complaints about staycation meaning changing form staying at home and doing day trips to be UK holidays by media.

I did think teachers and school staff had started referring to it as half term break - as pretty sure that's where my DC are picking up the usage.

I do this sometimes. My brain is over full with juggling stuff that actually matters, I don't care if I'm technically correct or not when trying make polite small talk with you! Sorry it bothers you, glad you have the mental energy to care what break it is. You probably know what I mean anyway, which is good enough.

@Youdontevengohere

Well you would think so but there are always some out of school for holidays!!

My friend actually has a son and moans more than me when they are around out of school when they should be in school!!

Well if there are swings then that is fine; if it’s a playground without swings then that is not right.

The on holiday thing is a hard one as you are on holiday from work but not actually on holiday.

Nope that is also half terms. Whitsun is generally not in half term (it used to be).

I don't know how anyone can NOT be annoyed by it.

It's factually inaccurate and so bizarre that it's become an accepted turn of phrase.

Half term quite literally means - half way through the term.

The Christmas, Easter and Summer holidays are the holidays at the end of each term.

It's really not a difficult concept to understand.

There isn’t though. They’re all at school for 39 weeks! Not all schools overlap, but most do.

Oh, to be a teacher.....

I have never heard anyone refer to Easter, Christmas or summer holidays as half term and, if I did, I would just assume they'd made a mistake.

Are we sure that anyone is using it deliberately? It sounds daft to my ears.

Loads of people do it here (SW) to mean "school holidays" and it actually does cause confusion. We are going to Spain in May Half Term and someone at work thought I meant I was going in the next fortnight.

I've just ploughed through the thread and I think it's a conspiracy. Nobody can seriously call Easter "half-term" wtf.

Worse still is some plonker up thread who thinks maths is the plural form of math lmao

We managed to cope with Holy Days being replaced with the word holidays in the 1500s, I'm sure we'll survive.

Omg this is so annoying I agree l!!!

One look at my local mums’ fb page or the school year WhatsApp group and you’ll see there are plenty of people referring to the upcoming school holidays (ie Easter) as half term. “Can anyone recommend days out for half term next week“ etc etc

I totally understand the concept, fear not. I just don’t care enough to be as accurate as others would like, it’s just shorthand I use for “a school holiday that isn’t the six weeks in the summer”. And now that I know it annoys so many people, I’m really not minded to change my approach but then I really try not to sweat the small stuff 😂

1/2 term isn't a concept, it's a fact. It has been used to define the break around the middle of a school term likely since forever that break has occurred.