DCHP-2

stat DCHP-2 (October 2016)

• n. & adj. — abbreviation, Administration

  a statutory holiday, i.e. a federal holiday on which employees get a paid day off work or are paid extra; often used in compounds, as in stat holiday.

  Type: 5. Frequency — Internet domain searches indicate that the clipping stat is most prevalent in Canada (followed by New Zealand). Given the inclination towards clippings and abbreviations in Canadian English and the frequency data in Chart 1, the clipping might have originated in Canada. The 1957 quotation shows the precursors of the general clipping, here with the dot that was eventually dropped (see the 1968 quotation).
  See also COD-2, s.v. "stat"(3), which is marked "Cdn informal".

  • In addition to the usage label informal applied in COD-2, the clipping is likely the most common form in the spoken language, with increasing uses in the written domain, some of which occur in rather formal contexts (see the 1997 quotation).