Tuesday, July 1, 2008

'Staycation' Needs To Take A Permanent Vacation

I'm not usually one to shy away from neologisms. I love coined terms, spoonerisms, portmanteaus, and the like. But there is a word entering common usage - especially in the context of our recent insane gas prices - that I cannot stand:

staycation.

I had not learned of 'staycation', my new bête noire, until I had a recent instant message chat with a friend regarding my recent vacation at home. He informed me that people were calling such stationary getaways 'staycations', to my horror and disgust. Apparently it has been around since at least 2006, if its entry on Urban Dictionary is reasonably reliable, but it hasn't found its proper moment in the cultural spotlight until now.

"What's so wrong with it?" you may be wondering. It is an abomination. Overly cutesy, orthographically clumsy with that wretched "yc" trainwreck in the middle, and downright insipid. And this is coming from someone whose own blog's name is of similar construction! 'Staycation' is forced fun in word form. It is designed to make you feel better about the fact that you can't afford to go vacation anywhere more interesting or exotic than home. It does not make me feel better. It makes me want to hurt someone. And I will do everything in my power to keep its popularity from growing.

Will you join me?

2 comments:

elisabeth said...

STAYCATION! is the kind of word that is used by billboards in Seekonk with lots of balloons and exclamation points advertising what you might win when you buy a couch at Cardi's.

jawnny said...

That is a frighteningly accurate description. I think that kind of ad campaign would also work well for a recliner sale. Picture a generic dad kicked back in a Lay-Z-Boy with built-in side table for soda/beer and snacks, remote in hand, hokey grin on his face, with STAYCATION! floating above him in big letters in a garish font. Ugh.