happy hour
English edit
Etymology edit
US origin, 1950s.[1]
Noun edit
happy hour (countable and uncountable, plural happy hours)
- A time of day, usually in the afternoon or early evening, when a bar or pub offers its drinks at a discounted price.
- 1988, Heywood Gould, Cocktail (motion picture), spoken by Brian Flanagan (Tom Cruise):
- Yes, happy hour. A great American invention for spending quality time with spouse, soused.
- Any small gathering, usually in the afternoon or early evening, set aside to relax and have a drink.
- (Cockney rhyming slang, in the plural) Flowers.
Usage notes edit
In normal English usage, the term happy hour is used to refer to the daily period of reduced prices, regardless of its length. The plural is only used to refer to separate happy hour spans (e.g., I have been to three happy hours at this bar.) or to happy hours at different establishments (e.g., Which bars in town have the cheapest happy hours?). The practice, common in some languages (notably French), of pluralizing the borrowed expression in reference to a period longer than one hour (e.g., happy hours de 16h à 18h) is unidiomatic in English.
Translations edit
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References edit
- ^ Eric Partridge (2005) “happy hour”, in Tom Dalzell and Terry Victor, editors, The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English, volumes 1 (A–I), London, New York, N.Y.: Routledge, →ISBN, page 962.
Further reading edit
- happy hour on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
- Jonathon Green (2024) “happy hour n.”, in Green’s Dictionary of Slang
Portuguese edit
Etymology edit
Unadapted borrowing from English happy hour.
Pronunciation edit
Noun edit
happy hour m or f (plural happy hours)
- happy hour (period in the late afternoon or evening when pubs offer discounts)
Spanish edit
Etymology edit
Unadapted borrowing from English happy hour.
Pronunciation edit
Noun edit
happy hour m (plural happy hours)
Usage notes edit
According to Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) prescriptions, unadapted foreign words should be written in italics in a text printed in roman type, and vice versa, and in quotation marks in a manuscript text or when italics are not available. In practice, this RAE prescription is not always followed.