We call them all "half term" here..

[Acc0untant]

And apparently I'm unreasonable. I see comment after comment about "it's not half term, that happens half way through each term" but ever since I was a child I, and everyone I know, calls each holiday a half term other than summer and Christmas. My parents and the parents of my friends (bearing in mind I'm in my 30s) have always done this.

Is it regional? I'm in the midlands. It's not just students/parents here, teachers use it this way, our school communications. Not even just my experience with one school, it was the same at my secondary school, my daughter's primary and secondary, my other child's nursery etc.

For us this is because we have a holiday after every half of a term, not that the holiday is half way within the term.

I appreciate that this wasn't the original intention of the phrase but at what point do we accept it's fine to use? Same as staycation originally meaning to do day trips from home rather than a UK holiday, it's now been used for both for so long that it's colloquially acceptable for both meanings.

Please no bun fights, I can't be bothered. I appreciate the pedantry with things such as this (and I can be that way with other stuff) but I'd really just like a nice, chilled conversation about it.

Do you say half term for almost all holidays? What region are you from? Would enjoy seeing if there's a correlation.

lived a few places all over the country and everywhere I’ve been it’s called half term.

Half term = off school. No one needs to state the actual holidays, it’s obvious it’s Xmas if it’s Xmas time and Easter if it’s Easter! Why elongate it?

I don’t think it’s regional I think it’s just people not understanding what a half term is. Here in the NE I’ve never heard anyone refer to Easter holidays as half term but someone else on here who says they’re from NE says they do.

Midlands here, we don't call them half term.

October half term, Christmas, February half term, Easter, May half term, summer.

This is exactly what I mean. I've no idea when it started but it's been this way for round here since I was a nipper so it's not new.

Every holiday is half term except the 6 weeks which are called ‘the 6 weeks’ 😁 and Dec is Christmas break.
I’m a older mom with teens that have left school and have always heard half term to mean each school break.

my friends teach in west mid schools and also refer to the breaks in the same way. So yes, prob a west midland thing.

it’s not confusing, when someone asks what are you doing at half term you know they mean the next break coming up.

I think they are more likely to have kids and younger kids at that from what I can see and hear.

@Acc0untant, yep, people of all ages, and the schools, refer to the Easter holidays as half term here (East Midlands). I’d never come across it before. Brought up in a different part of the Midlands. And what I would call the Summer Holidays are the Six Week Holidays here.

How have you possibly extrapolated that from my OP?

My point, quite clearly, was that we all call things different names and therefore can't more than one be the right way now? Hence my comparison to the accepted, albeit not traditional, usage of the word staycation.

Interesting. I've never heard of that where I've lived (SE and NW England). Does it not cause confusion given that the Easter term also has a half term?

I'm from the Midlands and only ever refer to February, whit whit and October as half term. Currently it's the Easter Holidays.

Everyone here calls the holidays by their names - Easter, Summer, October, Christmas, February long weekend (which is much more than a long weekend, but that's not the issue) - no half-terms in sight where I am in Scotland.

As a non Midlander who currently lives in the Midlands, I have to say you lot are batshit when it comes to a lot of sayings.

Also stop going on about "gambols". You are not lambs.

These kind of threads always come up with "its regional" for something that is just factually wrong.

Maybe by "regional" they mean "in my house".

DD is calling the current holiday "spring break" which nicely avoids the "it doesn't always happen at Easter" conundrum. (Although I hate the Americanism)

I've had more conversations than I care to count about people talking about something happening at "half term" and me assuming they must mean the May/June holiday whereas they actually mean the Easter holidays.

It's incorrect usage, and an issue as it leads to misunderstanding. Communication should be straightforward, and extending the use of a word so that you have to go through an additional layer of thought to work out whether the speaker means the correct usage or an additional "incorrect but might be getting more common" usage makes it more complicated.

Called half term in all the places I’ve lived - aside from Xmas - that’s called Christmas break

I've done that. I surprised the person I was talking to with my camping plans. It turned out she meant Easter not Whitsun/ May half term.
She worked in a school too and the school called Easter Easter.

My DD’s headteacher is also from the midlands, which would explain why her newsletter called it “half-term” too (we’re in London).

Exactly. Claiming it's regional is utter nonsense. It's 100% wrong. Easter Holidays is NOT half term. Call it half term if you want, but at least own the fact that what you're saying is wrong. Also, Midlands here, and no-one calls Easter 'half term.'

Yes but my point was that, certainly where I am, the usage of half term has changed to include the holidays you can have after each half of a term, not specifically the ones that happen in the middle of a term.

I can see why 'half-term' stealthily creeps in a catchall, but its just illogical when you look at the etymology.

I’ve been a teacher for over 25 years and have never heard any holiday called a half-term except for the ones that are, in fact, half terms 🤷🏻‍♀️

But the point of calling it a "half" term is that it's a shorter break between the main, longer holidays of Christmas, Easter and the summer.

There is nothing half about the summer holidays!

The meaning of half term has not changed. But there is an increase in its incorrect usage.

I accept that language changes over time, but this one shouldn't because it is quite specific.

You’re right and anyone who disagrees is wrong. It may be illogical however every school holidays is ‘half term’ with the exception of the Christmas & Summer holidays which are known by their full title. I don’t make the rules.

Well that's weird as DH and I are from Northern Ireland. North west rather than Belfast though.