General Chat

If children are not allowed to sing Baa Baa black sheep
because they say it's not PC to do so, why Black Friday?

Isn't it something about the day when companies hope to start making an annual profit ie into the Black? While costs outweigh income, they are in the Red

Det you are right, just thinking it was OK in some
instances and not others.

It's from the USA.

According to Wiki.....

Black Friday is the day following Thanksgiving Day in the United States (the fourth Thursday of November). Since the early 2000s, it has been regarded as the beginning of the Christmas shopping season.

Some sources state that the term originated in Philadelphia, used to describe the heavy and disruptive pedestrian and vehicle traffic that would occur on the day after Thanksgiving.

An alternative explanation (as Det said) is that retailers traditionally operated at a financial loss ("in the red") from January through November, and "Black Friday" indicates the point at which retailers begin to turn a profit, or "in the black".

Contrary to what many believed, Black Friday did not originate from the sales of slaves on the day after Thanksgiving.

In the UK is started in 2003 but took off big time in 2014.

Thanks for that IGP

Going back to the children's song

Although young children are colour-blind, were there concerns that older, malicious, children would use it as a racial taunt?

Some people are sensitive on behalf of others - Black Tea/Coffee, Black binbags etc refer to the colour. Black Tea/Coffee is a darn sight quicker to say than Tea/Coffee with no milk!
Black sheep in this context refers to the colour of their wool, but then we could also use it to describe someone who is or has done something 'bad' compared to the rest of the family?

I dislike the term BLACK Friday,


on the grounds that it is another Americanism to sully our British language

alongside Thanksgiving and Halloween.....
and Fall instead of Autumn

100% with you on that Bobtanian :-) :-)

'Black' will soon be officially recognised as a swear word.

I just wonder who is it that decides when any word is to be regarded as 'rude' & not to be uttered in polite company? :-S

probably the people that "THINK" it upsets other people.......

you can change a word describing something, to something that seems more "pure" but the fact remains that the action or implication remains the same.......as the words we grew up with........are demonised

Bob,

You may be interested in the following extract from Wikipedia regarding one of the origins of the word Fall

"The alternative word fall for the season traces its origins to old Germanic languages. The exact derivation is unclear, with the Old English fiæll or feallan and the Old Norse fall all being possible candidates. However, these words all have the meaning "to fall from a height" and are clearly derived either from a common root or from each other. The term came to denote the season in 16th century England, a contraction of Middle English expressions like "fall of the leaf" and "fall of the year".[16]

During the 17th century, English emigration to the British colonies in North America was at its peak, and the new settlers took the English language with them. While the term fall gradually became obsolete in Britain, it became the more common term in North America"

Shakespeare also used the word Fall (for Autumn) in one of his plays

Hmmm, didn't know that Allan,


Bob

Bob,

like you I was, and still am, concerned about the 'Americanisation' of the English language, but that particular one caught me by surprise :-0 :-) :-)

So, whatever happened to 'slack' Friday?

would that be tied up with Robinson Crusoe, and brewers droop? ;-)

Bobtanian - you're way ahead of me there!

Our local chippy is called 'Frydays'.

I had heard some years ago that children were not to sing 'Baa Baa Black Sheep" at school anymore. So I was most surprised to hear from my daughter that her child aged 2 years having his school assessment that the matter was raised of him not knowing the words to the song!

We had inadvertently failed him!

:-D Lavender.

But some sheep are black, some brown, some an apricoty (ginger? !!) colour, what else can you call them?

Baa Baa negative (in the photographic sort of way) sheep sounds more offensive!