The Zero Decade: Other Possible Names?

[3113]

As we move into 2009, with only a year to go of "Zero," I'm wondering what the decade might end up being called in the not too distant future (and, yes, I'm thinking in America)....Prior to 2000, people were discussing this. They wondered if the "0" before the number ought to be called: "Zero" or "Oh" or "Aught." Frankly, I think the best and most apt play on the zero (zeros) was when we ended up with Y2K for 2000. That pretty much crystalized 21st century thinking for me. None of this antique and oh-so-precious "Aught" stuff as they had at the start of the 20th century.

Now, as we get to the other end of the decade, I wonder what nickname it'll end up with. The first decade of the 1900's was referred to, nostalgically, as "The Innocent Aughts." A time romanticized as being before WWI and very sweet. I don't think this first decade of the 21st century is going to be looked on so fondly.

Maybe we'll be the "Back-To-Zero" decade as it seems like everything from 9/11 to the economy collapsing has been the world bombing itself back to the stone age

Any thoughts?

 

[rgraham666]

The Black Aughts. When the frenetic activity on the surface of our society used up the last of its fuel and it collapsed into relativistic nothingness.

 

[Weird Harold]

Any thoughts?

Replace the 2 with a Z and the zeroes with 'o's and you get the "ZOO" decade -- and the world has pretty much been a zoo for the last ten years.

 

[damppanties]

Frankly, I think the best and most apt play on the zero (zeros) was when we ended up with Y2K for 2000. That pretty much crystalized 21st century thinking for me.

Yup. The 2Ks.

 

[off2bed]

In British, zero is naught. Hence, it's the Naughties.

 

[Vermilion]

In British, zero is naught. Hence, it's the Naughties.

I agree. Suits me

 

[Boxlicker101]

Years ago, just before the change of century, I read of it being called "the oh-oh decade," which made a good play on words.

 

[NoJo]

The "Naughties" has been in common use since 2000 and is pop culture. I'm surprised that the term didn't make it across the pond. Mind you, pop culture tends not to travel into the U.S as much as it travels out.
Arrogance, I guess.

 

[fifty5]

Just gob-smacked that The Noughties isn't universal in the English speaking world...

 

[voluptuary_manque]

The "Naughties" has been in common use since 2000 and is pop culture. I'm surprised that the term didn't make it across the pond. Mind you, pop culture tends not to travel into the U.S as much as it travels out.
Arrogance, I guess.

Why? Because the outside is more eager for the inside than the reverse? It's not like we're forcing it down anyone's throat.

 

[slyc_willie]

Why? Because the outside is more eager for the inside than the reverse? It's not like we're forcing it down anyone's throat.

But . . . haven't you heard? The US is imperialistic now.

Maybe, going into the 2KTeens, some might look back and see 2000-2009 as the "ZerObama" decade, starting with the downslope and working back up toward something optimistic. We could hope, anyway.

 

[3113]

Just gob-smacked that The Naughties isn't universal in the English speaking world...

Too mild for all that's happened this decade. Naughty is pretty tame, don't ya think?

 

[fifty5]

Too mild for all that's happened this decade. Naughty is pretty tame, don't ya think?

Sorry, I used the spelling that seems to be prevalent; it should be the noughties, I believe.

We need an adjective, as in: the Swinging Sixties; the Naughty Nineties (1890s that was); the Roaring Twenties; etc.

Naughties elides (right word?) the noun and the adjective, purely for unjustifiable effect. I see no reason to describe the noughties as naughty. They may well need a MUCH stronger adjective ... or not?

 

[Vermilion]

Why? Because the outside is more eager for the inside than the reverse? It's not like we're forcing it down anyone's throat.

America can be a tad insular.

 

[Pornguin]

America can be a tad insular.

Well, when you are the best by far, you can be.

 

[Vermilion]

Well, when you are the best by far, you can be.

Well, let us know when that happens and then we'll all stop laughing atcha

 

[Pornguin]

Well, let us know when that happens and then we'll all stop laughing atcha

It's been that way since 1918; get over it.

 

[gauchecritic]

Words and like that. And the technology. And never having the words and the words that you were given were too complicated to spell. And the technology, well, not really. Maybe the ideas for the technology or maybe enough money to let someone think for longer that anyone else because they ticked the right boxes in their exams. and then when the ideas were there well then they suddenly appeared, or maybe were just expressed more efficiently in the orient and it turns out it was just occidental that the money was elsewhere, maybe it was just the will or the I want, me first.

Possibly just a bigger stick. cos now the money surely ain't and it seems the sticks have been distributed and people have found their own sticks because hurting a comparative few makes a bigger threat. Like when the bully gets his nose bloodied and then realises that bullying has to increase but anti-bullying has only one target.

Because it's certainly not culture, it's not history, it's just the loudest voice. Then when the loudest voice starts to whimper, then it just whimpers more because the only time anyone actually cares when a bully whimpers is when it makes the bullied cry or cry out or lash out.

Revolution, you have no idea.

 

[Stella_Omega]

Gauche? Are you okay?

It's always seemed to me that the defining years of a decade happen somewhere in the later half-- the Swinging Sixties weren't untill 66 and the Summer of Love was 68. The Sixties happened well into the seventies, really, and the Seventies-- disco, prog/glam rock-- got started in 74.

Most of 2K has been us holding our breath waiting for Bush's nineties to be over with.

 

[damppanties]

Words and like that. And the technology. And never having the words and the words that you were given were too complicated to spell. And the technology, well, not really. Maybe the ideas for the technology or maybe enough money to let someone think for longer that anyone else because they ticked the right boxes in their exams. and then when the ideas were there well then they suddenly appeared, or maybe were just expressed more efficiently in the orient and it turns out it was just occidental that the money was elsewhere, maybe it was just the will or the I want, me first.

Possibly just a bigger stick. cos now the money surely ain't and it seems the sticks have been distributed and people have found their own sticks because hurting a comparative few makes a bigger threat. Like when the bully gets his nose bloodied and then realises that bullying has to increase but anti-bullying has only one target.

Because it's certainly not culture, it's not history, it's just the loudest voice. Then when the loudest voice starts to whimper, then it just whimpers more because the only time anyone actually cares when a bully whimpers is when it makes the bullied cry or cry out or lash out.

Revolution, you have no idea.

Too long a name, g. Won't work. Try again.

 

[Boxlicker101]

Too mild for all that's happened this decade. Naughty is pretty tame, don't ya think?

Naughty is a good word, depending on what you are talking about. : Assuming you aren't speaking of a disobedient child, "naughty" usually means acting contrary to what might be considered outdated sexual mores. This would include things such as swinging, porn, widely accepted homosexuality, sex ads, porn sites like this one, and similar phenomena. I know these things were around before 2001, but they seem more open now than they were ten years ago. Of course, part of this is the Internet, thank you Al Gore. Maybe Naughty-ohs, or Naughties or Noughties might be a good name because it's a play on words.

"The Internet Decade might also be okay, but that seems too mundane.

 

[rgraham666]

Naughty-ohs would be a very popular breakfast cereal.

 

[Stella_Omega]

Naughty-ohs would be a very popular breakfast cereal.

I'd never get any work done!

 

[3113]

We need an adjective, as in: the Swinging Sixties; the Naughty Nineties (1890s that was); the Roaring Twenties; etc.

Very true. But then we'd have to go with words with "Z" (for Zero) or maybe "O" sounding like "the Awful Oh's".

 

[dr_mabeuse]

The OOs

As in "ooze".