Word of the Week: Holiday

This week’s word is ‘holiday’. The use of this word climbed slowly from 1800 to the early 1940s, at which it began to climb at a significantly higher rate. One possible reason for this is a rise in consumerism. People in the modern world might be more willing to buy gifts or throw larger parties for the holidays, making them more major holidays and encouraging people to talk and write about them more often.

The second major outlier of the trend depicted here is the dramatic drop that began to take place around the turn of the century. Since 2000, the use of ‘holiday’ has dropped to levels not seen since the late 1970s or early 60s. There are many possible reasons for this, and any speculation would likely not be accurate. However, this is a fascinating trend to observe and to interpret as you wish.