Owl-stretching Time
I just call it the 2000s - “the two-thousands”, or, if being really casual (like with friends over icq) I usually just say “now that it’s the millenium…”
Oh, and I never realized the naught in the mathematical term x-naught was indeed the same naught. I’ve never seen the expression Xsubscript0 actually written out before. Hmmmm.
Huh. I haven’t heard that used except for the 1900’s.
I don’t refer to it as anything at all. It’s easier that way 
I really don’t see a reason to refer to the entire decade yet, so it’s easier to say the year in question, all three of them.
We haven’t reached a concensus because all of the candidate names sound stupid. Aughts is too archaic and sounds forced. Zeros, ohs, and oh-ohs are awkward and uncreative. Noughties is just plain dumb (no offense intended to anyone).
This decade doesn’t have a name. It’s too cool for a name; well, it’s at least too cool for any of the current candidate names. We’ve gone about three years without a name for it and I think we can easily go another seven this way.
For now we can call it “this decade”, during the 2010’s we’ll call it “last decade”, and after that we can just call it “the first decade of the twenty-first century” or “the nameless decade”.
Come to think of it, “the nameless decade” could work. Not only does it give this set of years a sort of mystique, but I think it would be fun to explain our current confusion to the great-grandkids some day.
When I saw the thread title, I pronounced it “ooze”… so “Ooze” gets my vote.
“…back in the ooze, we used to …”
I don’t. I say stuff like “Hey, it’s the nineties” and hope this decade is over before that joke goes old. So far, so good.
I call this decade the 2Ks. As in, “I haven’t been back east since early 2K2.”
Why the frack aren’t other people doing the same? You’d think it would be a natural progression: throughout 1998 and 1999, it was Y2K this and Y2K that, so why not just stay in that groove?
Because “the 2ks” seems to indicate a 1000 year period, not a 10 year one.
On those extremely rare occasions when I decide to refer to this decade I just say “in this decade.” In 7 years I’ll move on to “in the last decade” to refer to this one and “in this decade” to refer to the next one. By the time the 20s roll along I’m not going to be referring to this as a decade at all. I will however be refering to the next decade as “the last decade.” And by the 30s this whole nasty business will be behind me.
According to the editorial staff of Merriam Webster’s:
So the last definitions would be the more recent usages.
Quiz on Friday.
~Nit-picking retired English teacher[/hijack]
As for what to call this decade, I can’t remember the day before yesterday or plan much further than next month. I just call it “the fog.”