My (Canadian-born) dentist once asked where I was going for “vacay.” Some other Canuck, I think, said something similar to me a few years ago. Figured it was a regional term.
In the last two months I’ve had non-Canadians use this abbreviation.
Have you? Any idea where it originated and how prevalent (or on-the-increase) it is?
I can’t say I’ve ever heard the abbreviation.
These so called ‘friendly endings’ are common in Australian English.
I’m going home at Chrissy to visit the rellys. (Christmas Relatives)
Johno came round this arvo and we had a couple of tinnies. (John, afternoon, tins/cans of beer)
Let’s have a barby this weekend. (Barbeque - apologies for spelling)
In the late 80s the UK was blessed with the arrival on TV of several daytime soaps from Australia which popularised certain examples. (eg ‘uni’ for university is now ubiquitous in the UK). I’m guessing the your ‘vaccy’ comes from the same thing - the peoeple who used it have been dangerously exposed to Aussie English :eek:
Some U.K. schools call their holidays ‘vacs’, summer being ‘long vac’.
If I ever hear “vaccy”, my reaction will be “Ewww”. Ugly way to abbreviate a word. Why not use a good old English term, like “hols”? 
I don’t know what the situation is in Britain or Australia, but in the United States, there’s a distinction between vacation and holidays.
Holidays are paid days off that your employer gives you automatically as part of the business calendar. These can include national holidays and quasi-secular holidays like Christmas.
Vacation is time off that you specifically request from your employer and it is deducted from your paid vacation allowance.
Saturday and Sunday (if you have them off) are neither holidays nor vacation. They are just your regular days off.
I’ve been speaking Canadian all my life, eh (see).
Never heard this particular expression.
Seems like I’ve been hearing and using “vacay” for years. In America.
Kind of my reaction. A twee usage at best, and kind of pointless to boot because (I guess this is true of a fair number of ‘abbreviations’) saves all of 6 milliseconds by omitting one short syllable.
[hijack]
Sure is - the former in American English the latter British English 
Seriously ascenray thanks for the elucidation, students often ask me this and I’d always go with my former glib explanation - I seriously didn’t know you guys used ‘holiday’ at all except for the whole Thanksgiving/ Chanuukah /Christmas / New year “holiday period”. We rarely use vacation at all and when talking about holiday taken for a specific purpose say ‘leave’ as in 'sick / maternity / sabbatical leave. [/hijack]
Since the late 80s at least.
Sounds like sorority or valley girl speak. “Pass me the za.”
New Yorker here. We use the term all the time. I’ve never seen it spelled out but I’ve always assumed it was spelled vaca, even though it’s pronounced vay-kay.
Yer welcome.
We also use sick leave, maternity leave, extended leave, unscheduled leave, etc. Vacation allotments are also often referred to as “annual leave.”
Many employers also offer something called “personal leave,” usually one or two days a year. It varies as to how it is implemented. Sometimes it means that you can take leave without prior notice, much like sick leave only you don’t have to actually be sick. Often it is no different from your vacation/annual leave, except that it might be a set number of days; whereas, vacation allotments might increase as you earn seniority (the standard is two weeks a year, earned as a number of hours for each pay period).
But for us, “sabbatical” stands alone: “He’s on sabbatical.” Not “sabbatical leave.”
If you’re a student, then you also get “breaks.” Spring/Easter break (usually one week), summer break (two to three months), and winter/Christmas break (usually two to four weeks).
And you’re right, we refer to the winter break period as “the holidays.”
Also, “to go on a vacation” may or may not imply actually taking a trip, according to context.
In the UK, “bank holiday” is a frequent term for a national day off (last month there was May 2, the Monday of May Day weekend). The reason the “bank” qualifier is necessary is to distinguish such a day from a vacation trip.
In the US, a bank holiday is technically any holiday when banks are closed, but the term is usually used for the lesser holidays like Columbus Day, when bankers and government workers get the day off, but which are ignored by the rest of the workforce. Legitimate holidays like Thanksgiving or Independence Day don’t need a qualifying adjective - they’re just holidays.
My first encounter with the “vaca” abbreviation was in Cosmo magazine a couple of years ago. I’ve never heard anyone actually say it, though. (I’m in Montreal)
I’ve always associated this with Valley speak myself - it’s something that’s been in the U.S. for years, anyway.
BTW - “vaccy”? Based on its spelling I assume it rhymes with “waxy” - is that an actual slang word used somewhere for vacation?
People in Australia talk of going “on holidays”. I don’t know anyone who says “on vacation”.
THere’s a great tradition in the UK of taking ‘a sickie’ when you really just can’t be bothered to go to work, or the sun has suddenly come out, or it’s Friday, you know you make that early morning call to work before having anything to drink so you sound extra croaky ? To combat this I heard some places had introduced ‘duvet days’ (duvet - a type of quilt) - employees are allowed a certain number of duvet days per year maybe this is the same thing ? Rather than lying and saying you’re ill the company accepts that every once in a while you just need to stay in bed ?
(The friend who told me this is actually a civil servant working for the government in London !)
Apologies for continued hijack.