80's, 90's, Then The Whatchamacallit Decade

Washington Post:

Jesse Sheidlower, editor at large of the Oxford English Dictionary, cannot escape the question: What should we call this decade? We have the '80s, the '90s, and . . . the "twenty hundreds"?

Sheidlower has faced the query, often posed in panicky tones, at cocktail parties, in letters to the editor, and in phone calls to his word-saturated office. The anxiety began in the mid-'90s, then stretched into the early whatchamacallits -- Aughts? -- and has now reached fever pitch as the decade winds to a close.

Read the whole story: Washington Post

Comments

[Moxo]

07:44 PM on 12/26/2009

Dubya gace us Hell.... so call it the "Hell - 0's"!

[LauraD]

07:30 PM on 12/26/2009

This is not complicated.

1800-1809 are referred to as "the 1800s." 1900-1909 are referred to as "the 1900s. Years after that are referred to by the title of the century plus the decade, ie 1920-1929 are referred to as "the 1920s."

Therefore, 2000-2009 should be referred to as "the 2000s."

Why are people making this difficult? It can follow the same pattern as has been acceptable English for centuries, you know.

[Hopalongpoppyseed]

07:14 PM on 12/26/2009

Call in the 2,000 Bupkises. because the rich got richer and the people got bupkis.

[Hopalongpoppyseed]

07:46 PM on 12/26/2009

The Buppies.

[njb444]

06:43 PM on 12/26/2009

The name I habitually use as I read through the article is the "two-thousands," but if you want to get picky and say that applies to the whole millennium, I'd call it the "aughts." The BBC calls them the "noughties," but that just sounds naughty.

Side note: I guess we won't be wearing those kooky glasses anymore with the eyes formed out of the two zeroes.

[AlysonStern]

06:20 PM on 12/26/2009

The 00's led by the biggest ZEROES that came down the pike! Worst decade ever. Under the worst pResident EVER!

[MrAA]

05:57 PM on 12/26/2009

The Aughtn'ts.

[Phxflyer]

05:54 PM on 12/26/2009

The Years W Lost Us.

[drkazmd65]

05:30 PM on 12/26/2009

For most of us,... the '00s have been a pretty much a loss,....

How about we just call it the "Lost Decade"?

[ckfan]

05:16 PM on 12/26/2009

This past decade would have been so much different if the Supreme Court didn't give the election to Stupid, uh, W. First, no 9/11 because the Clinton administration was on top of Bin Laden. Second, no war in Iraq. Third, no war in Afghanistan. Fourth, no economic meltdown. Fifth, no Cheney.

[henrypapillon]

04:43 PM on 12/26/2009

How about the Lost Decade.---W was in there and everything went backward. It was like the clock went backward. We lost ten years.

[msbadger]

03:37 PM on 12/26/2009

I'd have to vote for the Zeroes. It rolls pretty easily off the tongue, which would increase its usage. And it was a big fat ZERO for this country. We COULD call it the cl us ter fu ck.....

[lefty joymonger]

07:54 PM on 12/26/2009

Haa! love it. The Two Thousandsies - 'the clusterfuckyears'.

[kopanko]

02:09 PM on 12/26/2009

They've kept my original post, which violated none of the written standards, in limbo for a half hour--Thanks again!

[kopanko]

02:05 PM on 12/26/2009

Wow, That actually got through--too bad no context whatsoever. Thanks so much HP

[kopanko]

02:03 PM on 12/26/2009

Why are you playing these capricious games with people for no reason HP?

[Myoho]

02:03 PM on 12/26/2009

how about the "Decade of Republican/Conservative failures and lies?

[KevinMast]

04:42 PM on 12/30/2009

This is every decade since the GOP was formed, isn't it?