"staycation", "daycation"

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On Tue, Jul 29, 2008 at 1:55 PM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu> wrote:
>
> "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".

"Daycation" actually predates "staycation" in the databases.

1993 _Toronto Star_ 1 June A6 (Factiva) Canada's Wonderland, on the
other hand, was a winner from last year's loser weather and expects to
be again. "We had a record year," said spokesperson Scott McConnell.
"Because people took less driving vacations, we became an attractive
'daycation,' " McConnell said.

Earliest we've seen for "staycation" is from 1999:

http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0807a&L=ads-l&P=15562


--Ben Zimmer

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org