Today is a holiday, and several students don’t have school as a result. But as Valerie Strauss reports on the “Answer Sheet” blog in the Washington Post, the holiday that comes every year on the third Monday in February is strange for several reasons:
- There isn’t a universal agreement on the name of the holiday.
- Nobody really knows which president is honored.
- Nobody can decide on where to put the apostorphe.
Snow moon in Washington, Feb 16. (Photo: Anthony (Tony) Bee via Flickr)
What’s it called?
Most people call it “Presidents’ Day,” but the federal government calls it “Washington’s Birthday,” putting “Presidents’ Day” in parentheses, and celebrates it on the Monday before Mr Washington’s actual birthday, which is Feb 22.
Which president is honored?
For sure, Mr Washington is honored by the holiday, but Abraham Lincoln is also honored in many states and Thomas Jefferson in a few states.
Where do you put the apostrophe?
This one we know a little more about, although one can easily find any usage on the Internet and in print media:
Presidents Day
President’s Day
Presidents’ Day
All choices represent perfectly good English. The first one, without an apostrophe, uses a noun as an adjective to modify another noun. The word “presidents” modifies the word “day.” Think “game day” or “Veterans Day.”
The second one, the singular possessive, applies if the day honors only one president, as the federal government suggests. The parenthetical use of the plural possessive on usa.gov switches from honoring only Mr Washington to honoring at least one other president, however.
My vote is for the third choice, which is probably the least common in print and on the Web, even for those who think the holiday honors more than one president. Think “women’s volleyball.” The game of volleyball doesn’t belong to one woman but to many women, plural, so the apostrophe-s is placed after the plural women. For plurals like presidents, which already end in ‘s,’ only an apostrophe is added.
