Comment

Islam, Sharia Law, and Paranoia

274
palomino2/21/2011 6:27:10 pm PST

re: #260 Aceofwhat?

easy. he’s right. in conventional speech, a person who says “in the 1700’s” is properly understood as referring to the century, not the decade. we’re just not used to referring to the 1900’s as such because it did imply the decade of 1900-1910 when we were still in that century.

Of course. I was just trying to wring some humor out of a topic that apparently doesn’t really lend itself to such. At least not in my hands.

But it does bring up the question—never really settled—of what we call the decade that just ended. Back in the early 20th century they called their first decade the “aughts”. That sounds antiquated today and hasn’t caught on with anyone whose sensibility is more modern than George Will’s. So we’ve got people calling it the “double-zeros” or the “2000’s” meaning the decade, not century.