TIME MAGAZINE: A Brief History of Naming the 2000s
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Waxing nostalgic about this decade is going to be tough. And not just because there's plenty--from 9/11 to the financial apocalypse--we'd rather forget. No, the trouble is that when we tell our grandkids about the first decade of the 21st century, we may not know what to call it.
This gap in the English language shouldn't come as a surprise; the debate over what to name the first decade of this century has been going on since the middle decades of the last one. The 1900s never got a name beyond vague constructions like the turn of the century. One popular term--the aughts--has proved too archaic (and tricky to spell) to be broadly revived. Wordsmiths tried new coinages starting early: in 1963 a New Yorker writer suggested "Twenty oh-oh" for the far-off year 2000, a "nervous name for what is sure to be a nervous year." Twenty years later, a New York Times editorial proposed the Ohs. In 1989 the late word guru William Safire floated Zippy Zeros. (It sank.) In 1999 a New York City arts collective mounted a campaign to name the decade the naughties, plugging the moniker on posters and stickers around the city. Attempts to poll our way to consensus failed. One in 6 voters in a 1999 USA Today poll preferred a variant of the aughts to the 2Ks, the Zips and the First Decade, among other options; in a separate survey the same year, 20% of respondents picked the Double O's. Meanwhile, in a poll by the British p.r. firm QBO, the Zeroes prevailed.
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– BY LAURA FITZPATRICK
Labels: Laura Fitzpatrick, TIME
2 Comments:
Ryan
i read the newsweek story today and love what you tried to do. tell me more about how you went about campaigning for the idea you had. the UNIES. i love it. what about the next decade, now, what's your POV.....The Teens? Newsweek said you spent 10 years using your blog and brochures to popularize your idea, what was the reax from the MSM media and the blogs, and did you have any success at all? it's okay, i am also a dreamer and most of my ideas never get anywhere doe to lack of interestg by MSM...but never give up. yes yesyes go go go email me offline at danbloom AT gmail DOT com i am a reporter in Taiwan want to intervidew you for my blog at zippy1300 in the blogspot spcae
Saying that oos = Unies doesn't tell anyone how to pronounce the word. Reading it one might as soon say ooh-knees. I really like the pledge and the the back story behind the term but I just don't see it catching on. The word just kinda feels like it's describing a fantasy tribe of unicorns in a video game. I know that when referring to this past decade "aughts" feels more natural but I don't like it. I've also heard different radio DJ's using it quite a bit for a few years now so I'm afraid aughts it will be.
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