St Lubbock's Day
- proper noun
- Archaic
- Many businesses used to close on St Lubbock's Day as it was considered a bank holiday.
Examples
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Historical records mention lavish parades on St Lubbock's Day in Victorian England.
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The tradition of celebrating St Lubbock's Day has faded over time.
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Many people used to celebrate St Lubbock's Day with family gatherings.
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Do you remember the last time we celebrated St Lubbock's Day?
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Historical records mention lavish parades on St Lubbock's Day in Victorian England.
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Many businesses used to close on St Lubbock's Day as it was considered a bank holiday.
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The tradition of celebrating St Lubbock's Day has faded over time.
Surface Forms
Morphology
St + Lubbock's + day
The form 'St + [name] + day' signals a saint's or commemorative day, so a B1 learner who knows 'St' (saint) and 'day' can infer it is an observance named for Lubbock. However, the detailed sense that it was specifically a former UK bank holiday and is now historical/unofficial is cultural and lexically specific and cannot be derived from the constituents alone.
Etymology
The name St Lubbock's Day may come from Sir John Lubbock, a politician who helped set up 'bank holidays' in Britain in the 1800s, and people jokingly called the new holiday a 'saint's day' for him. That's why St Lubbock's Day came to mean a 'bank holiday', though it is no longer an official holiday.
