Akademik

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Vacationing with one's extended family or friends. —n.

Those surveyed plan to take more vacation time at home this year as there continues to be an emphasis on family after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Yesawich said. Eight in 10 respondents said they planned to vacation with extended family or friends, a trend called "togethering" that is on the increase, he said.

— John Yantis, "Majority of Travelers Look for Deals on Internet, Arizona Travel Expert Says," East Valley Tribune (Mesa, Arizona), May 25, 2004

Among a hundred other statistics, the peppy marketing group, led by the irrepressible Cami Mattson, reported that, in the last five years, eight out of 10 travelers took at least one vacation with extended family or friends.

More and more, Americans are vacationing in a loving gang, it seems.

This trend toward mob bonding is called "togethering," a novel word to my ear.

— Logan Jenkins, "North County the spot for `togethering'," The San Diego Union-Tribune, April 29, 2004

The 105th Nickerson Family Association Togethering will be held Sept. 6-8 in Dennis-on-Cape Cod.

— "Reunions," Portland Press Herald (Portland, Maine), June 12, 2002

The word togethering in this sense was unleashed upon the world in an October, 2003 press release from Walt Disney World announcing the company's "Magical Gatherings" program. The term has been trademarked by the travel marketing firm Yesawich, Pepperdine, Brown & Russell, with a filing date in the U.S. of November 4, 2003. Note, however, that neither Walt Disney World nor YPBR invented the term, with the earliest citation for this sense coming in 2002 and the word itself having been around since at least the 1985 release of the album Togethering by jazz musicians Kenny Burrell and Grover Washington, Jr.