"staycation", "daycation"

[Laurence Horn]

At 9:53 PM -0500 7/8/08, Dennis Baron wrote:
>There's a new post on the Web of Language:
>
>...Anyway, the odometer of English isn't going to turn to one and
>six zeroes next year, because most experts think that Payack has
>seriously overestimated the size of English, partly because he
>includes such oddities as staycation, 'vacationing at home because
>gas is too expensive' and e-vampire, 'an electronic device that
>consumes excessive amounts of energy.'
>
>Staycation and e-vampire are amusing products of the moment, and so
>far, that's all they are. People who don't know what they mean
>aren't bothering to look them up, and it's likely that these words
>won't be around very long, because even if energy costs remain high,
>people will still need to get away, and they'll take their
>gas-guzzling iPhones and laptops with them, leaving staycationbehind
>with the baggage "not wanted on the voyage," and driving a stake
>through the heart of e-vampire.

"Staycation" is now taken enough for granted that it forms the
springboard for a new and presumably even more short-lived formation.
A current radio commercial for an amusement park urges listeners to
"forget the STAYcation, and come for a DAY-cation".  Checking on
google, though, I find 14,500 raw hits for "daycation" with the same
sense (a vacation to be accomplished in a single day, presumably with
no sleepover needed).  Google, perhaps thinking of traffic jams and
gas prices, helpfully asks if I meant "damnation".

LH

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