根據《牛津英語詞典》的記載，自從二十世紀六十年代早期以來，感恩節後的那天就一直被稱作「黑色星期五」。
According to the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), the day after Thanksgiving has been called Black Friday since at least the early 1960s.
一種說法就是「黑色星期五」這個詞源於傳統商業記帳方式。紅筆記錄赤字，黑筆記錄盈利。很多生意，尤其是小買賣，在聖誕節之前就開始盈利，很多商家希望在感恩節之後這一天就能開始用黑筆記錄盈利。
One theory is that the term Black Friday comes from an old way of recording business accounts. Losses were recorded in red ink and profits in black ink. Many businesses, particularly small businesses, started making profits prior to Christmas. Many hoped to start showing a profit, marked in black ink, on the day after Thanksgiving Day.
然而，財務上用黑色代表盈利的這種解釋，很可能不是「黑色星期五」一詞的真正來源。更為可能的來源是：「黑色星期五」一開始是被用作玩笑話，用來代指感恩節後的那天交通狀況會極為糟糕。因為當天有大量狂熱的顧客湧入市中心，所以路上的擁堵就成了一年當中最為嚴重的了。
However, the black ink explanation is probably not the origin of the term. The more likely story is that 『Black Friday』 started out as a joking reference to how bad the traffic would be on this day. Due to the influx of enthusiastic shoppers into city centers, the congestion was the worst that it would be all year.
《牛津英語詞典》早期的引文表明，「黑色星期五」可能是在警察和公交司機當中傳播開來的，因為他們無疑是很害怕交通如此堵塞的那一天的。這個詞語的使用好像是從賓夕法尼亞的費城開始的，然後就傳播到美國的其他地方去了。
Early citations in the OED indicate that the term may have originated among police officers and bus drivers, who no doubt would have dreaded this traffic heavy day. The use of this term seems to have started in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, before spreading to other areas of the country.
其實，不單美國有「黑色星期五」，英國也有。那麼英國的「黑色星期五」又是怎樣的一天呢？了解一下吧！