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  #1  
Old 06-07-2012, 04:27 AM
Keith Lyons Keith Lyons is offline
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What is first decade of 21st century called?

Dear All:
It is commonly referred to as "the 9/11 decade" -- in US journalism, pencil & electronic press, political science, & history books; but generally not so outside of the United States.
Sincerely: -- Keith Lyons
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  #2  
Old 06-07-2012, 04:30 AM
Sr Siete Sr Siete is offline
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Noughties.
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Old 06-07-2012, 05:06 AM
cochrane cochrane is online now
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Is this the article you're referring to?

What will the first decade of the 21st century called?

It's considered helpful to other members if you link to the article you're commenting on. Also, notice the date in the article is January 1, 1975, so September 11, 2001, was still 26 years into the future when it was written.

Last edited by cochrane; 06-07-2012 at 05:08 AM.
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Old 06-07-2012, 05:43 AM
Giles Giles is offline
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Originally Posted by Sr Siete View Post
Noughties.
I've always liked the "Naughty Noughties" myself, but play around with the spelling if you wish.
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Old 06-07-2012, 05:45 AM
Fear Itself Fear Itself is offline
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Originally Posted by Sr Siete View Post
Noughties.
That keeps getting suggested, yet no one uses it.
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  #6  
Old 06-07-2012, 06:33 AM
Nunzio Tavulari Nunzio Tavulari is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Keith Lyons View Post
It is commonly referred to as "the 9/11 decade"
I've never heard the term before. It seems unwieldy and jingoistic. can you provide an example of this usage?
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Old 06-07-2012, 06:38 AM
Sr Siete Sr Siete is offline
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Originally Posted by Fear Itself View Post
That keeps getting suggested, yet no one uses it.

At least in the British media it's quite common.
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Old 06-07-2012, 06:40 AM
SanVito SanVito is offline
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I've always heard Noughties (Brit again)
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Old 06-07-2012, 07:38 AM
Powers Powers is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Keith Lyons View Post
Dear All:
It is commonly referred to as "the 9/11 decade" -- in US journalism, pencil & electronic press, political science, & history books; but generally not so outside of the United States.
Sincerely: -- Keith Lyons
Dear Keith:

No it's not. Isn't it fun to exchange unsupported claims?

Sincerely: -- Powers

Last edited by Powers; 06-07-2012 at 07:38 AM.
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Old 06-07-2012, 09:18 AM
Czarcasm Czarcasm is online now
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Keith Lyons View Post
Dear All:
It is commonly referred to as "the 9/11 decade" -- in US journalism, pencil & electronic press, political science, & history books; but generally not so outside of the United States.
Sincerely: -- Keith Lyons
Commonly used where? It's not that it can't be found on the internet, but it is usually in stories that have something to do with the 9/11 incident and/or the following war.
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Old 06-08-2012, 11:13 AM
drewder drewder is online now
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I don't know why we feel so concerned about declaring a name for the decade. If there is to be a generally accepted name for the decade it will happen organically with out a committee being appointed.
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Old 06-08-2012, 12:22 PM
Irishman Irishman is offline
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We're trying to find out if one has appeared organically.

"The noughties" appears to be fairly common, mostly for the play on words.
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  #13  
Old 06-08-2012, 12:32 PM
Gagundathar Gagundathar is offline
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I'll bet you that the first decade of the 21st century won't get named until we start naming the one we are currently in 'the teens'. Then, we may well choose 'the beginning of the century' or something equally cumbersome until some crafty young person coins a new term which will catch on like wildfire and forever sunder our populace into those who 'get it' and those who don't.
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Old 06-08-2012, 12:34 PM
Leaffan Leaffan is online now
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What did we call the previous century's 00s decade? The nineteen hundreds is probably the most common. (Then the nineteen tens, the twenties, the thirties..........)

I've never heard anyone genuinely call the 2000s the naughties. I think we'll probably settle on the two thousands as time goes on.
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Old 06-08-2012, 02:03 PM
squidfood squidfood is offline
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Originally Posted by Gagundathar View Post
I'll bet you that the first decade of the 21st century won't get named until we start naming the one we are currently in 'the teens'.
Which is quite odd, really - at least the Seventies, Eighties, and Nineties were referred to as such while I was living in them.

I've most often heard the "two thousands", probably leftover hype from the millennium. FWIW, it's listed that way here. It will be interesting to see if that sticks once the technical "two thousands" includes more than a decade.
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  #16  
Old 06-08-2012, 02:37 PM
John W. Kennedy John W. Kennedy is offline
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I use “ought-five”, etc., for individual years, as many people did a hundred years ago, but I’ve never used either “oughties” or “noughties”. “Nineteen-hundreds” was used for 190x, but you’ll note that “eighteen hundreds” isn’t used in the same way, due to the ambiguity, and I imagine “nineteen-hundreds” will soon succumb to the same problem. People are resisting “twenty-hundred” in all forms, anyway.

I suspect that society will eventually fall back on some nonnumeric term, just as the 180x decade is most likely to be called “the Regency” or “the Napoleonic era”, though either is imprecise. “The 9/11 decade” might indeed win out in time, or some reference to Bush or... Harry Potter, for aught I know. Who can say?
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  #17  
Old 06-08-2012, 02:47 PM
gazpacho gazpacho is offline
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I think that we will find that like the first two decades of the 1900s there is not a widely used nickname for the years 2000 to 2009 and 2010 to 2019. once we hit 2020 it will be the twenties etc. just like last century. Sometimes a pithy nick name doesn't come around and people somehow muddle through.
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  #18  
Old 06-08-2012, 02:58 PM
Prelude to Fascination Prelude to Fascination is offline
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I would say the early 2000s, or more specifically, the year. I say "early 1900s" when referring to 1900-1910 or so, so there's that continuity for me. "Noughties" just sounds silly as far as I'm concerned. Who uses "nought" for zero (except maybe Jethro Bodine)?
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  #19  
Old 06-16-2012, 01:41 PM
gamerunknown gamerunknown is offline
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"Noughties" offends me aesthetically. I may just have any recollections of the decade erased and pretend it never existed.
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  #20  
Old 06-25-2012, 05:53 AM
Mona Lisa Simpson Mona Lisa Simpson is offline
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I've been known to call the decade past the "uh-oh-s" (00's). I was trying to get it to catch on but evidently I failed to bribe the non existant committe enough.
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  #21  
Old 06-26-2012, 07:40 AM
Nunzio Tavulari Nunzio Tavulari is offline
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I have proposed "The g00gles" several times but nobody else has taken up the banner to date.
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  #22  
Old 06-26-2012, 08:43 AM
Fear Itself Fear Itself is offline
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Nobody respects my "2K's", even though we started the decade with the Y2K scare.
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  #23  
Old 06-26-2012, 11:25 AM
qazwart qazwart is offline
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What will the first decade of the 21 century be called?

How about one big effing mess?

If there was ever possible to take a mulligan, the first decade of the 21st century would be it. That's sad considering how well the 20th century was ending: Democracy taking root in Eastern Europe, the U.S. taking a peace dividend and reducing military spending, the federal budget was being balanced, there was full employment, and the President was getting some. (Unfortunately, we all had to hear about it in detail, but not everything can be perfect).
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  #24  
Old 07-12-2012, 02:09 PM
JKellyMap JKellyMap is offline
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"Two thousands" works fine for me. I've used it quite a few times, and never been misunderstood, as far as I know. Works best when the conversational (or textual, in which case "2000s") context is appropriate to decade-talk.

I wouldn't use "early 2000s", as someone suggested, because this suggests "2000-2005," I would say.

Last edited by JKellyMap; 07-12-2012 at 02:11 PM.
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  #25  
Old 07-12-2012, 02:38 PM
BrotherCadfael BrotherCadfael is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Gagundathar View Post
I'll bet you that the first decade of the 21st century won't get named until we start naming the one we are currently in 'the teens'. Then, we may well choose 'the beginning of the century' or something equally cumbersome until some crafty young person coins a new term which will catch on like wildfire and forever sunder our populace into those who 'get it' and those who don't.
I was reviewing my old posts the other day, and I see that on at least three occasions I said that we would wait until the teens, and then start calling it the "turn of the century". This is pretty much what we did last time.
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Old 07-12-2012, 02:57 PM
aldiboronti aldiboronti is offline
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The first decade of the 21st century has no common name. Oh, there have been attempts to give it one but none of them have really caught on. I wouldn't sweat it though. The second decade too has no name and it won't be until we reach 2020 that we'll have familiar decade terms again.

Precisely the same thing occurred for the first two decades of the 20th century.
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  #27  
Old 07-12-2012, 05:00 PM
YogSosoth YogSosoth is offline
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I call it the 2000's. To me, since we're only in 2012, then of course it refers to only the decade and not the entire thousand year period from 2000-2999.
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  #28  
Old 07-12-2012, 07:57 PM
Krokodil Krokodil is offline
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As I understand it, 1901-1910 was collectively called "Turn of the Century." So 2001-2010 can be collectively called "The Millennium." Purists won't like it, but it sure sounds better than any alternative.
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  #29  
Old 07-13-2012, 07:41 AM
JKellyMap JKellyMap is offline
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Originally Posted by Krokodil View Post
As I understand it, 1901-1910 was collectively called "Turn of the Century." So 2001-2010 can be collectively called "The Millennium." Purists won't like it, but it sure sounds better than any alternative.
Not sure I get the parallel here. Perhaps you meant to write "turn of the millenium"? 'Cause it sure as heck ain't no millenium.
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  #30  
Old 07-15-2012, 10:08 AM
Elendil's Heir Elendil's Heir is offline
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I'd also say the "two thousands." From context, it should be clear if you mean the first decade, or the entire century.
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  #31  
Old 07-15-2012, 10:19 AM
tapu tapu is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Leaffan View Post
What did we call the previous century's 00s decade? The nineteen hundreds is probably the most common. (Then the nineteen tens, the twenties, the thirties..........)

I've never heard anyone genuinely call the 2000s the naughties. I think we'll probably settle on the two thousands as time goes on.
Yeah, this is what I was thinking. (Fooey on you, Leaf.)

Anyway, I have my own suggestion. I'm sure it will take off across the US and then the world. Let's call them the OOgles! It'smore dignified than the Noughties and shows we're not all bawdy. Well, okay, maybe not dignified exactly.

Last edited by tapu; 07-15-2012 at 10:20 AM.
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  #32  
Old 07-15-2012, 06:01 PM
Nunzio Tavulari Nunzio Tavulari is offline
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Let's call them the OOgles!
cough...post #21...cough
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