MetaChat - What's the name of this decade? It seems like it dosn't even have one.

MetaChat is an informal place for MeFites to touch base and post, discuss and chatter about topics that may not belong on MetaFilter. Questions? Check the FAQ. Please note: This is important.

01 June 2006

What's the name of this decade? It seems like it dosn't even have one. At the beginning of this decade people were wondering what it would be called. It's half over and it doesn't seem to have any name at all. People were always going on about "the 80s" and "the 90s" during those time periods and continue to do so today. But there doesn't seem.→[More:]
It also seems like there are far less ruminations on the "character" of the decade. Is it because there is no obvious word for it, we just don't bring it up? That seems rather Sapir-Whorfian to me.

Maybe it's due to 9/11? Whenever people want to talk about "This group of years" we just say "post 9/11". The second half of the decade could be described as "post-Katrina".

Naming year-groups after disasters is a lot more interesting, IMO.

post by: delmoi at: 01:22 | 22 comments

I call this decade the "aughts", as everyone should.

posted by cmonkey 01 June | 01:35

I call this decade the "aughts", as everyone should.

Right but how often does it come up in conversation? As often as "the 90s" did during the 1990s?

posted by delmoi 01 June | 01:42

Yeah, you're right. I was curious how that was going to shake out... but here we are, and zip zilch. Which is also what I think the decade should be called: "the Zips".

1900 to 1910 didn't get called anything either, I think. After that we had the roaring '20 to make up for it.

posted by taz 01 June | 01:42

Also, it's sad, but the character of the decade is totally Bush/war/fundamentalism everywhere... basically, a kind of dark ages feeling. Science is under attack, fascism is patriotism, religion is ascendant and angry. It's probably also the closest to a "Big Brother" scenario that the non-communist west has experienced so far. Everything is turmoil. Everybody's mad about the cups. It's the Dark Aughts.

posted by taz 01 June | 01:53

You're really hoping that'll catch on, aren't you, taz? :)

posted by kmellis 01 June | 02:28

1900 to 1910 didn't get called anything either, I think.

People called that decade "the aughts" or "just after the turn of the century" back then.

posted by cmonkey 01 June | 02:30

hey, dood - it just feels right. :)

posted by taz 01 June | 02:31

Right but how often does it come up in conversation? As often as "the 90s" did during the 1990s?

Not terribly frequently, but I don't really remember "the 90s" coming up often in the 1990s. It takes a few years for that retrospection to kick in.

posted by cmonkey 01 June | 02:34

Yeah, cmonkey - but as delmoi points out, if you say something historical occured in the early or late aughts, people won't really get what you are talking about. So we say it happened in the early 1900s, which still rolls trippingly off the tongue, and "aughts" isn't really used.

But it's totally weird to say something happened in the early 2000s... I don't think anyone will ever really say that. They will say convoluted things like "In the first half of the last decade". ...Or we will finally get used to saying "aughts".

posted by taz 01 June | 02:54

Also, where's Wendell? Good domaain name: amiaughtornot.com

posted by taz 01 June | 02:55

the naughties...?

posted by ramix 01 June | 02:57

That would be so cool. But the Naughties sounds fun... and it hasn't been fun. More like the fraught-ies.

posted by taz 01 June | 03:03

Sorry... I was busy registering uoygnik.com (spell it backwards!)

But in a piece I wrote some time ago titled "VH1: It's Too Early to Love the '90s", I wrote a long digression near the end about the problems with naming this decade which ended up being edited down to:
Karma is going to catch up to the purveyors of instant nostalgia, just as their short-term memory trips catch up to the rest of us. Because on Jan. 1, 2010, the nostalgia vultures will circle, begin production on "We Love the '00s", and discover, to their dismay, that nobody has figured out how to pronounce "'00s".

Upon further consideration, it wouldn't be misleading to call this decade the Oh-Ohs!!!

posted by wendell 01 June | 04:25

wendell:

- Double O heaven - All your favourite tunes from the start of the century.
- We love the Double oh's
- Millenio-Fun: Sexay Music from the naughties.
- The best 21st Century Music EVAR.
- Top ten tunes from the first Ten years.

You understand that I'm not even a marketing executive with time on my hands.

Unfortunately, they will find a way, and it'll be awful.

posted by seanyboy 01 June | 06:40

What cmonkey said.

posted by sciurus 01 June | 06:55

CBC radio's been calling it the "aughts" for years. as in "aught not to".

The 1900's were called the "naughts".

posted by reflecked 01 June | 07:36

Aughty-aughts or the Aughties.

posted by warbaby 01 June | 08:36

I call it "the turn of the century" Try it, it's fun: "turn of the century fashions", "turn of the century automobiles" "the turn of the century iPod craze"

posted by Capn 01 June | 08:55

That's aught.

posted by mullacc 01 June | 09:57

I think it should be called The Time When Dragons Ruled the Earth. Sure, this is completely false, but man, when they print out new high school history books ten years from now, that's gonna be so kickass.

posted by Lipstick Thespian 01 June | 10:46

What's the name of this decade?

George Bush's Curious Mix of Arrogance, Terror and Incompetence, duh.

posted by trondant 01 June | 11:16

As boring as it sounds I bet it will just be called "the two thousands".

posted by Rhomboid 01 June | 13:16

← i got no fire on me. i got no fire on me. no cigarettes! no matches! || orezenoowteerhtruofevifxisnevesthgieenin.net →

HOME || REGISTER || LOGIN