"staycation", "daycation"

[sagehen]

on 7/29/08 1:55 PM, Laurence Horn at laurence.horn at YALE.EDU wrote:

> 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
>
~~~~
How long before we have old camp revivals calling themselves"praycations"
& a day on the links as  a "playcation"?
AM

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