Fiji time
- noun
- Informal
:
hora de Fiji
- When you're on Fiji time, being late isn't a big deal.
Examples
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Meetings often start late when everyone follows Fiji time.
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She quickly adjusted to the slower pace of Fiji time on the island.
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We are on Fiji time here, so don't worry about being late.
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Everyone knows that Fiji time means things start later than scheduled.
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Meetings often start late when everyone follows Fiji time.
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She quickly adjusted to the slower pace of Fiji time on the island.
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When you're on Fiji time, being late isn't a big deal.
Synonyms
A relaxed way of keeping time when people often arrive late
A relaxed way of planning time and events common in Pacific island cultures
A relaxed way of dealing with time in Hawaii where events often start later than planned
A relaxed approach to schedules where people often arrive late
A joking way to say people often arrive later than planned in Samoa
A relaxed way of keeping time where being late is normal
How Relaxed
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase combines a place name 'Fiji' with 'time', so a learner can infer it refers to a local or culturally specific sense of time, but the particular idiomatic meaning — a relaxed, informal attitude to punctuality — depends on cultural knowledge rather than strict compositional semantics. Because the constituents point toward a locale-based sense but do not fully predict the pragmatic, culturally loaded meaning, a B1 learner who only knows the words is unlikely to derive the exact sense without exposure.
Etymology
Fiji time comes from life on the islands, where people often do not follow strict clocks and move at an easy pace. Because people often arrive late and 'being late isn't a big deal', Fiji time means a relaxed, informal way of keeping time.