bank holidayn.adj.

Brit.

/ˌbaŋk ˈhɒlᵻdeɪ/,

/ˌbaŋk ˈhɒlᵻdi/, U.S.

/ˌbæŋk ˈhɑləˌdeɪ/, Irish English

/ˌbæŋk ˈhɑlədeː/

Forms: see bank n.³ and holiday n.; also with capital initial(s).

Origin: Formed within English, by compounding. Etymons: bank n.³, holiday n.

Etymology: < bank n.³ + holiday n.

Chiefly British and Irish English.

A. n.

Originally: a weekday on which banks are closed, as a holiday for bank employees. Later: a weekday (in the majority of cases a Monday) on which banks and most other businesses are closed or (more recently) observe shorter than usual opening hours or offer a reduced service; a public holiday. Also: a long weekend including such a day or days; a bank holiday weekend.The Bank Holidays Act of 1871 established the first statutory bank holidays (bills due on any of these days being payable on the following day), and various changes have been introduced in subsequent acts; cf. quots. 1871, 1971.In Scotland, most bank holidays are not recognized as statutory public holidays, and while banks close, many other businesses continue to operate normally.

ΘΚΠ

society > leisure > [noun] > a period of > holidays > formal > bank

bank holiday1778

1778 Town & Country Almanack (Edinb.) Index 2/1 Bank Holydays.

1787 London Chron. 27 Feb. 204/3 This Compendium will comprehend at one view..the time when dividends are due and payable; transfer days and hours; Bank holidays, [etc.].

1802 Morning Post & Gazetteer 29 June 1/2 No business transacted on Bank Holidays, nor after four o'clock, on any day.

1871 Act 34 Vict. xvii. 18 Bills or notes falling due on a bank holiday under this Act, viz., on Easter Monday, Whit Monday, first Monday in August, or 26th of December, are payable on the following day.

1879 R. Jefferies Wild Life 103 These two main fairs are the Bank Holidays of rural life.

1906 ‘D. Lyall’ Sign of Golden Fleece 36 Your mother and I are going down to Margate over the Bank Holiday, and you must just manage as best you can.

1971 Banking & Financial Dealings Act c. 80 Schedule 1 The following are to be bank holidays in England and Wales:—Easter Monday. The last Monday in May. The last Monday in August. 26th December, if it be not a Sunday. 27th December in a year in which 25th or 26th December is a Sunday.

2014 Sunday Times (Nexis) 7 Sept. 90 The beach was as crowded as Brighton's on a bank holiday.

B. adj.

Behaving or appearing like a person enjoying a bank holiday; festive, holidayish. Cf. bank-holidayish adj. at Derivatives. Now rare.

ΘΚΠ

society > leisure > social event > festive occasion > [adjective] > befitting

festyfull?a1425

high day1600

festivous1654

festal1724

carnivalesque1791

bank holiday1885

holidayish1886

bank-holidayish1894

gala1954

1885 E. Whitaker Our Little Ann x. 154 There were more people to be seen in the streets, many of them of that peculiarly Bank-holiday type.

1902 Pall Mall Mag. Aug. 499/1 We gazed through the clear water under the boat on what seemed a very Bank Holiday gathering of crabs.

1930 R. Lehmann Note in Music vii. 294 ‘We look very bank-holiday,’ she said.

Compounds

C1.

a. General attributive and appositive.

ΚΠ

1868 Daily News 9 Mar. 7/2 Sir Colman O'Loghlen's Bank Holiday Bill.

1899 A. Conan Doyle Duet i. 2 If he had to travel all the way from Edinburgh with a Bank-holiday crowd.

1908 World's Paper Trade Rev. 7 Aug. 10/1 August opened brilliantly, with ideal Bank Holiday weather for Monday last.

1991 Water Bull. 6 Sept. 22/1 Water Bulletin..is back after its August bank holiday break.

2014 Irish News (Nexis) 5 May 66 His team's journey to the Kingdom on Friday took longer than expected as bank holiday traffic took its toll.

Bank Holiday Monday n.

ΚΠ

1875 Funny Folks 3 Apr. 130/1 At this season she has to submit to lose [earnings from work on] Good Friday, the half-day on the Saturday following, and the Bank Holiday Monday.

1938 Manch. Guardian 2 Aug. 11/7 The visitors for the day numbered as many as on other August Bank Holiday Mondays in recent years.

1979 New Scientist 19 July 216/2 Weekday programmes between 30 July and 31 August (Except Wednesdays and Bank Holiday Monday).

2006 Metro 24 Aug. (London ed.) 29/2 For Carnival, Thursday's usual YoYo night transfers its hip hop beats, r'n'b, ragga and old school d'n'b to the Bank Holiday Monday.

C2.

bank holiday weekend n. a long weekend including a bank holiday or bank holidays.

ΚΠ

1899 Sheffield & Rotherham Independent 15 Aug. 3/7 Complainant spent the Bank Holiday weekend at Llandudno.

1978 Brit. Med. Jrnl. 17 June 1641/2 This meeting insists that these two days [sc. statutory holidays] be attached to annual holiday and not added to bank holiday weekends.

2006 Guardian 3 June (Weekend Suppl.) 9/2 The throng of bank holiday weekend travellers.

Derivatives

bank-ˈholidayish adj. characteristic of or suitable for a bank holiday; cf. sense B.

ΘΚΠ