"Black Friday" on Word Routes

[Baker, John]

        Some newspaper articles have picked up the story, and these do tend to credit Bonnie and sometimes the American Dialect Society (though not necessarily Ben):


Now-popular term has troubled roots in Philadelphia, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, http://www.jsonline.com/business/the-origins-of-black-friday-l1367e9-134476698.html

More on the etymology of 'Black Friday,' Star Ledger, http://blog.nj.com/njv_paul_mulshine/2011/11/more_on_the_etymology_of_black.html

'Black Friday' started in Philly, Philadelphia Inquirer, http://www.philly.com/philly/news/breaking/20111125_Black_Friday_started_in_Philly.html



John Baker


-----Original Message-----
From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of Bonnie Taylor-Blake
Sent: Friday, November 25, 2011 11:16 AM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: "Black Friday" on Word Routes

On Fri, Nov 25, 2011 at 10:15 AM, Ben Zimmer
<bgzimmer at babel.ling.upenn.edu> wrote:

> My Word Routes column on the Visual Thesaurus rounds up the excellent
> research on "Black Friday" that Bonnie Taylor-Blake has conducted, taking
> the expression back to the early '60s in Philadelphia:
>
> http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/wordroutes/3047/

What a great analysis, Ben.  Many thanks for putting that column
together and for getting the word out about the true origin of the
day's nickname.

-- Bonnie

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org