# Singles' Day

> English word · Proper noun

## Definitions
1. November 11th, a day for shopping and celebrating not being in a relationship, originating in China, the shopping event has spread worldwide.

## Etymology
Calque of Chinese 光棍節 /光棍节 (guānggùnjié). From being a day for single people who are not in a relationship, the complement of Valentine's Day. From Chinese slang for a bachelor without familial branches being a stick, and the set of ones in the date of 11/11 being a set of sticks, a set of singles. Originating at the University of Nanjing in the 1990s as Bachelors' Day, and popularized as a shopping event day by Alibaba in the 2000s.

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/singles-day