Let's Call this Decade "The Zeroies"

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After all, "The Fifties" = the word fifty plus "ies".

― Mike Hanle y (mike), Sunday, 19 January 2003 17:52 (twenty-three years ago)

OK, we will. I'll let the others know.

― Nordicskillz (Nordicskillz), Sunday, 19 January 2003 17:57 (twenty-three years ago)

What did they call it last time around?

― jel -- (jel), Sunday, 19 January 2003 18:00 (twenty-three years ago)

The apocalypse.

― Nordicskillz (Nordicskillz), Sunday, 19 January 2003 18:07 (twenty-three years ago)

I think we should call this decade the "startie"

― jel -- (jel), Sunday, 19 January 2003 18:20 (twenty-three years ago)

I am a pessimist on this issue: I think we're going to be stuck with "the noughties".

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Sunday, 19 January 2003 18:21 (twenty-three years ago)

startie is good (NOT startieS!!)

i think it would be zeries

nullies
zeddies (isnt that what they call it in canada or something, zed i mean)

― ron (ron), Sunday, 19 January 2003 18:25 (twenty-three years ago)

you could call it the "aughts" according to the google search I did.

― jel -- (jel), Sunday, 19 January 2003 18:25 (twenty-three years ago)

oh maybe zed is z?? ack

― ron (ron), Sunday, 19 January 2003 18:25 (twenty-three years ago)

We should start planning for next decade as well.

The tennies?

― Curtis Stephens, Sunday, 19 January 2003 18:37 (twenty-three years ago)

the teens probably.

― jel -- (jel), Sunday, 19 January 2003 18:41 (twenty-three years ago)

but that wouldn't be fair on 2011 and 2012.

― jel -- (jel), Sunday, 19 January 2003 18:41 (twenty-three years ago)

the tenties surely

― stevem (blueski), Sunday, 19 January 2003 19:26 (twenty-three years ago)

the noughties

or, the Now!ties (sorry)

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Sunday, 19 January 2003 19:32 (twenty-three years ago)

Yeah, zed is zee = z

zero is zero = 0

― Kim (Kim), Sunday, 19 January 2003 19:44 (twenty-three years ago)

I think I'll force myself to say things like "the first decade of this century" or some such, as all of the other ideas I've heard have been gigarub.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Sunday, 19 January 2003 19:46 (twenty-three years ago)

what?!? even the Startie?

― jel -- (jel), Sunday, 19 January 2003 19:47 (twenty-three years ago)

Okay, maybe that one is just megarub.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Sunday, 19 January 2003 19:50 (twenty-three years ago)

the ooze

― mark s (mark s), Sunday, 19 January 2003 20:41 (twenty-three years ago)

oh, I like that one!

― jel -- (jel), Sunday, 19 January 2003 21:27 (twenty-three years ago)

the noughties are fine

― stevem (blueski), Sunday, 19 January 2003 22:02 (twenty-three years ago)

what did people do in 1908?

― stevem (blueski), Sunday, 19 January 2003 22:02 (twenty-three years ago)

Language had barely been invented then, it wasn't a concern.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Sunday, 19 January 2003 22:11 (twenty-three years ago)

you could call it the "aughts" according to the google search I did.

grampa simpson would approve ("..back in nineteen aught six..")

― electric sound of jim (electricsound), Sunday, 19 January 2003 22:12 (twenty-three years ago)

I Love The Zeroies - I'll look forward to watching that on BBC2.

― Ben Mott (Ben Mott), Sunday, 19 January 2003 22:32 (twenty-three years ago)

urgh i thought noughties was someone taking a piss out of the nineties, like imitating some accent. its a horrible word how do you say it `nó-u-tis`? is it like that?

― Chupa-Cabras (vicc13), Sunday, 19 January 2003 22:38 (twenty-three years ago)

noughties is pronounced naughties. nought = nothing = 0.

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Sunday, 19 January 2003 22:40 (twenty-three years ago)

There's still time to make it the Naughty Noughts.

― j.lu (j.lu), Sunday, 19 January 2003 22:48 (twenty-three years ago)

The Oh!-ies?

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Sunday, 19 January 2003 23:13 (twenty-three years ago)

The Nils?

― weatheringdaleson (weatheringdaleson), Sunday, 19 January 2003 23:17 (twenty-three years ago)

The Oi-s!!!

― Chupa-Cabras (vicc13), Sunday, 19 January 2003 23:18 (twenty-three years ago)

I present... The Twenty-Ohs. And years should be "Twenty-Oh-Three", not this unwieldy "Two Thousand and Whatever" crap.

Advantages: Besides the aesthetics, it's century-specific and translatable.

― B.Rad (Brad), Monday, 20 January 2003 08:01 (twenty-three years ago)

how about 2000-2009?

― That Girl (thatgirl), Monday, 20 January 2003 08:04 (twenty-three years ago)

Decades are an irrelevance. We should take the opportunity to drop the whole meme and group years in base 11 instead.

― N. (nickdastoor), Monday, 20 January 2003 16:54 (twenty-three years ago)

one year passes...

Late breaking millennial nomenclature news!

I was listening to Radio 4 this morning and the newsreader (the sexy one) pronounced '2008' as "Twenty Oh-Eight"! Was this a temporary aberration or is this now BBC policy? If that latter, is this a King Canutesque move, or bold and brilliant?

― Alba (Alba), Friday, 3 September 2004 12:04 (twenty-one years ago)

After all, "The Fifties" = the word fifty plus "ies".
-- Mike Hanle y (pennyson...), January 19th, 2003 5:52 PM.

i'm a year and 3/4 late, but, that's not really true right? that'd make the fifties the fifty-ies...

― ken c (ken c), Friday, 3 September 2004 13:03 (twenty-one years ago)

'Twenty Oh-Eight' is exactly what it should be called.

― the neurotic awakening of s (blueski), Friday, 3 September 2004 13:41 (twenty-one years ago)

So ken, do ou propose this decade be called the zeries? That's cool.

― dave225 (Dave225), Friday, 3 September 2004 13:49 (twenty-one years ago)

You know, I just noticed that a newsradio station in Chicago has started doing the same thing. Or maybe they always have -- I never listen to that station. But yeah: they were talking about a kidnapping that happened in "twenty-oh-two." At first I thought it was just the whim of the newsreader, but several hours later a different person read the same story, with the same pronunciation.

― jaymc (jaymc), Friday, 3 September 2004 13:59 (twenty-one years ago)

well i would have suggested "zeroes" since fifties is the plural of fifty. but zeries sounds kinda good! like as if it's buffy or nip/tuck something.

― ken c (ken c), Friday, 3 September 2004 14:02 (twenty-one years ago)

i mean there's no way people are going to say 'two thousand and tweny four' when that comes around, so it will be interesting* to see at what point the majority of people switch to ditching the 'and'

*not really

― the neurotic awakening of s (blueski), Friday, 3 September 2004 14:05 (twenty-one years ago)

people say whatever is the easiest to say or "make sense".. they say "ninteen oh eight", but 1900 is "nineteen hundred" rather than "nineteen oh oh" or "one thousand nine hundred". "two thousand and two" is easier to understand than "twenty oh two" but less ridiculously wordy than say "one thousand nine hundred and two".

it's all kind of a pragmatic compromise.. there's no hard and fast rules, once people get used to saying "twenty fifteen" in 2015, they'll probably say "twenty oh two" much more often when it becomes the norm and it makes immediate sense.

― ken c (ken c), Friday, 3 September 2004 14:20 (twenty-one years ago)

in cantonese we say the year in digits.. "1997" would be "yat gao gao chut" which is "one nine nine seven" i guess having single syllable everything helps here.

― ken c (ken c), Friday, 3 September 2004 14:22 (twenty-one years ago)

Steve - of course '20 oh-two' would be more consistent with what's been done in the past. I'm not objecting to it as such. It's just clearly not what people are saying.

It's weird that this is suddenly happening all the world. Kind of fishy.

I think it will swap over naturally in 2013. First time that the 'two thousand and' formulation becomes a mouthful.

― Alba (Alba), Friday, 3 September 2004 14:27 (twenty-one years ago)

maybe in 2013 verbal communication will altogether become obsolete as people turn to communicating solely via texted based internet (if it's still to be text based).

― ken c (ken c), Friday, 3 September 2004 14:32 (twenty-one years ago)

five years pass...

fail

― Dean Gaffney's December (history mayne), Friday, 18 December 2009 12:12 (sixteen years ago)

there's still time

― harbl, Friday, 18 December 2009 16:24 (sixteen years ago)

nine months pass...

Didn't realize their was a US/UK divide on this:
http://oxforddictionaries.com/page/describedecade_us

― jaymc, Tuesday, 28 September 2010 17:41 (fifteen years ago)

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