"Black Friday" used to refer to stock market crashes in the 1800s.
「黑色星期五」原本是指美國在十九世紀股市大跌時的說法。
Although it is now known as the biggest shopping day in the US, the term "Black Friday" originally referred to very different events.
雖然「黑色星期五」這一詞現在為人熟知的是描述美國最大的購物日，不過它原來指的是相當不一樣的事情。
"Black for centuries has been used for various calamities," says linguist Benjamin Zimmer, executive editor of Vocabulary.com.
身兼語言學家及Vocabulary.com網站執行編輯的Benjamin Zimmer表示：「黑色在數百年來都是被用來指稱形形色色的大災禍。」
A chalkboard shows the prices of gold on "Black Friday", which reached a high not surpassed for 100 years
In the US, the first time the term was used was on 24 September 1869, when two speculators, Jay Gould and James Fisk, tried to corner the gold market on the New York Stock Exchange.
在美國，第一次使用「黑色星期五」是在1869年的9月24日，當時有兩位叫做Jay Gould與James Fisk的投機商人，試圖要壟斷紐約股市的黃金市場。
When the government stepped in to correct the distortion by flooding the market with gold, prices plummeted and many investors lost sizable fortunes.
就在美國政府以提供大量黃金流入市場的方式介入並導正這種歪風時，金價應聲暴跌，而許多投資客損失了相當可觀的金額。
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