ネイティブが教える英会話のジェムスクール☆Teachers☆

CALL IT A DAY

"Call it a day" is an idiom that means to stop working or doing something for the day. It can also mean to decide to stop because you're tired or it's not successful.


EXAMPLES

"You've been studying hard – I think you should call it a day"

After 14 years living and working in this country, she thinks it's time to call it a day.



HISTORY

The idiom began with the phrase ‘call it half a day,’ originally recorded in 1838, when it was used to refer to employees who went home before the working day was over. That is when the attendance records had his workdays mentioned as half days. Since then, whenever the employees were not working in the office for the entire workday, their superiors would call it ‘half a day’ to make sure that their salaries would have deductions according to the no. of half days. Later, this phrase was transformed into ‘call it a day’ which means that work on that particular day is completely over. In the year 1919, the very first use of ‘call it a day’ was recorded, and since then, has been used by many people and companies worldwide, and from there it became used as an idiom.