Discussion Forum—A Way with Words, a fun radio show and podcast about language

I was born in the UK and lived there until I was 25 yrs old and “busman's holiday” is a very familiar expression to me. This is how I believe it originated:

In the old days, when there was a bus driver and bus conductor working on the red double deckers, a group of employees would borrow or rent (not sure which) a bus for a week or two and actually go on holiday…on the bus. I imagine they would roll up the “out of service” sign on the front and back and away they would go on their “busman's holiday.”

From that time on, any holiday one would take that was related to work in some way became a busman's holiday.