English for Today by Ganiu Abisoye Bamgbose (Dr GAB)
USING THE RIGHT WORDS
He came around and we had a long ~gist~ (nonstandard).
He came around and we had a long chat (standard). An informal conversation is called a chat while the substance or general meaning of a speech or text is gist.
Some people could talk for 2 hours and you will not get the gist of their talk.
Tuesday is my ~off~ (nonstandard).
Tuesday is my ~off day~ (nonstandard).
Tuesday is my day off (standard). A day’s holiday from work or school, on what would normally be a working day, is called a day off. An off day is a day one fails to perform well as expected: Yesterday was an off day for Manchester.
GAB
2 Comments
I have a dictionary on my android phone named ‘English’. It defines off day as follows:
“A day in which an employee is not scheduled to work.
Until they gain a little seniority at this hospital, newly hired nurses need not expect to have two consecutive off days.”
Though, it equally concurs with your definition of off day. You may check if you have it on your phone. Thank you and I do appreciate your efforts.
Hi