Meanwhile, ShopNBC's Black Friday deals begins by referring to its listings as "special pre-Black Friday holiday deals and offers," but by mid-page, has abandoned the game entirely and just lumps all the offers under "Black Friday."

And then there's Wal-Mart, which last year sought to undercut 'em all with its (wonderfully misnamed) "Secret Sale" that began a full three weeks ahead of Black Friday.

This year, the nation's largest retailer is co-opting the horde of sites out there charting Black Friday (and pre-Black Friday) ads, giving some sites permission to post its Black Friday deals in advance. Here's where you can get that HP DeskJet F2210 All-in-One Printer for $29.

So, here's the upshot: Black Monday is no longer a day -- now, it's a movement. Thank the current economic malaise for expediting this trend, which ostensibly means a wider window in which consumers can snap up deals. (It also means a wider window during which retailers will be selling discounted merchandise and slashing shipping fees, cutting into their margins... hmm.)

As for Black Friday's online step-relative "Cyber Monday" -- never that accurate a term to begin with -- I can't imagine this recent turn of events doing it any favors.

We all know that for some time, Cyber Monday not exactly lived up to its hype as the highest-volume e-commerce day of the year. (Has it ever?) Typically, the most online shopping gets done on the Monday or Tuesday about two weeks ahead of Christmas.

Officially, the National Retail Federation's Shop.org -- one of the prime movers behind the term, with its own page devoted to upcoming Cyber Monday deals -- admits that it's not, strictly speaking, the actual busiest day for online sales:

Cyber Monday is a Shop.org-coined term for the Monday after Thanksgiving, which is seen by many retailers, consumers and the media as the official kick-off to the online holiday shopping season.

At any rate, with steep deals extending earlier and earlier, it's clear that retailers aren't betting on the tradition of Black Friday to singlehandedly deliver the customers.

And if that trend makes Cyber Monday even less relevant, then that's fine with me: We in the media already have too many vacuous marketing-originated terms to handle and justify using in our copy. Besides, just making sense of them all gets in the way of hopping on all those early Black Friday steals!

UPDATED TO ADD: My colleague Kenneth Corbin, who has written at length about Cyber Monday, Black Friday and days that outshine them both also not long ago pointed out the large role online coupons will likely play during shopping this year.