more back-formed shopping

[Arnold Zwicky]

On Dec 4, 2008, at 9:17 PM, Wilson Gray wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: more back-formed shopping
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>
> I hear simple "holiday" used in the meaning, "holiday-shop," in the
> voiceover of an ad on local cable. Is there no end?!

could we have the context (and some details about the ad)?  it's not
something i can google up easily.

(there is a british idiom "go holiday" 'go on holiday' and a verb
"holiday" 'to vacation', which NOAD2 marks as chiefly british.)

a verb "holiday" could also be a verbing with more general meaning
('celebrate the holidays' or something like that).  and there's
another verbing in "holidayed out" (meaning something like 'exhausted
from celebrating the holidays').  but i haven't been able to find any
instances of a verb "holiday" that means specifically 'holiday-shop'.
so: context, wilson, context!

arnold

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