December 8, 2009
what time is it?
The debate has been raging on Yahoo! Answers for years now, where users have come up with some creative solutions, like the O’s, the 2K’s, or “the onesies.” Some users seem at least entertained by “the naughties,” which an arts collective took up in a grassroots campaign in 1999 but ultimately failed to succeed on a colloquial level, though it’s used more often in the U.K.
Whatever word or phrase, if any, finally ends up catching on with the public, it’s worth noting that the decision has given Americans pause.
I suggest the lost years.
Jason has gone with Noughtie, and brought in Jenni Leder to curate a best of:
Hi folks, I’m Jenni Leder and I’ll be heading up The Noughtie List. It’s basically a list of all the “best ofs” from the 2000s. It’s a work in progress so I would love to get your input on what should go on the list. I’ll also be doing a weekly post highlighting the best of the “best ofs” that are on the list, as well as keep you all updated on any new developments.
comments
Leave a Reply
I like the aughts. We’re in two double-aught nine, or just aught nine if we’re trying to be concise.
I like the Noughties. We rarely use the word nought in the US or Canada, but I think that it’s appropriate. We’ll be heading into the teens pretty soon!
Another problem is that the decade doesn’t even end until next year.
Another vote for the aughts. Might as well go with precedent, even though the only surviving usage of “aught” from the 1910′s that I’m aware of is the .30-06 rifle caliber.
Another vexing question is what do we call 2010? Twenty-ten or two thousand ten? Convention would seem to indicate that we switch from saying “two thousand and…” to “twenty” eventually, but no one seems to know when, exactly.
I’m a fan of the “oh-ohs”.
I was talking about this with my boss about a year ago, then later with Andrew and Lucy. If at all possible, I suggest spreading the idea of the “uh-ohs.” Fits for the decade if you ask me, but perhaps that’s why Jason likes the “noughties.”
Yeah, we seem to be going with noughties over here too, though the fond, familiar infantilisation aspect will probably fade with time. Common usage will thrash it out over the next few years, of course. And give it a few more decades and people will just call it “around the turn of the century”.
I already say (or do I just think it?) twenty-ten, so obviously I’m cool with that. I also like the ‘lost years’ idea–or to be more pointed, in the US at least, ‘the Bush years.’
I think I was prescient when I wanted to be a double-naught spy.
In my mind, two Simpsons quotes were combined to create “The Dickety-Aughts”, because the Kaiser had stolen our word for twenty, dag-nabbit.