vacation [LME] People did not really have holidays in the Middle Ages, and vacation was freedom or rest from work or occupation. The root of the word is Latin vacare ‘to be unoccupied’, source also of vacancy [L16th], vacant [ME], and vacate [M17th]. The vacation then became the fixed time between terms when lawyers and university teachers vacate their premises and are free from formal duties. In North America it is the usual word for a holiday, a sense first used in the 1870s; a holiday is normally a specific national holiday such as Thanksgiving.