Only two weeks into the new year and a vacation already seems necessary.

For this one, we visit our friend, Latin: vacare, “to be empty”. Kind of sounds like an English word that means empty (vacant, anyone?), which is indeed a not-so-distant relation of vacation. The Latin noun form of vacare is vacationem, “exemption, freedom”. It’s pretty easy to see how Old French shortened it to vacacion to mean “vancancy, vacant position,” which then got picked up in English.

Vacation: “freedom from occupation; leisure”.

Next time you want to make fun of a Latin geek, consider instead thanking them for inventing vacations (because that is a logical leap here). Also, tell them to check out my blog so we can be friends. #LanguageNerds

Happy Humpday! See you Nerds next week. As always, feel free to comment below with words you’d like to see explored in the following weeks.