When did everybody start taking ‘leave’?

I always took annual ‘leave’ when I was working and that’s 15 odd yrs ago. Holidays was when I was actually going on a holiday.

I think 'holidays' refers to the annual fortnight in the summer when people went away with their family, usually the only holiday they had apart from bank holidays.
Now that people have more holiday entitlement it is referred to as 'leave', as in away from the workplace.
My theory anyway.

Both DH and I have leave at work, always have done. I have various forms of leave in the NHS, DH has annual leave in the private sector. Holidays are what we sometimes go on when we have leave, or we may simply be using it for childcare.

Def the same thing poppyred- it just seems to be used by more businesses nowadays. Maybe you had leave Lois because it was a government post as are the forces.

Just wondering. What is annual leave ?

I remember that my DF used to refer to 'leave' when he was in the Civil Service. He was there from after the war until the mid-70s.

I took annual leave; I am a retired local government worker and it was always called just that. I could take 1 day or a week or two so sometimes I was away on holiday, sometimes it was a day off. In addition I could take flexi- time , which was additional time I had accrued over and above 37 hours per week; when I had 8 hours credit I could take a day off. It's been called annual leave for 40plus years, not new at all.

I retired from a bank 6 and a half years ago. You had been taking “annual leave” long before that. I still said holiday, we still used the phrase “holiday list” not “annual leave” list.

I think it made the bosses feel important talking about leave.

It’s the same thing isn’t it? Annual leave/holidays?