End of the decade...?

[Relique du Madde]

This been annoying me for the last several weeks whenever a "best/worst of the decade list pops up".

Which is more accurate as being the current (or last) decade 2000 - 2009 or 2001 - 2010? I know there are alot of reasons why to choose one decade over the other, but I'm wondering what years everyone else considers a decade to be the current (or last) decade?

 

[Janx]

this is kinda like the millenium being 2001, not 2000.

To the layman, they see a digit roll-over, and that's the line of demarcation.

1999 to 2000, 2000 is the starting point

2009 to 2010, another roll-over hence the hoopla...

I suspect that, just as 2001 was the actual start of the 21st century (and thus also a start of a decade), 2011 is the start of the next decade.

you'll be seeing this stuff next year, basically they can ride the horse twice.


And thanks to the mayan calendar and it's roll-over, expect hoopla about 2012 as well.

 

[megamania]

This is the last year of the decade. This is also the last decade. It all comes to an end in December 2012

 

[Theo R Cwithin]

As for accuracy, yeah, the decade is technically 2001 through 2010. This is because the very first year AD was 0001, not 0000. So the first decade was 0001 - 0010, not 0000 - 0009. The rest, as they say, is history.

Even though it's not technically correct, most people commonly think of a decade as the years xxx0-xxx9, mainly because that's how we group them when we talk about them with words: we say "the Thirties", not "the decade starting in 1931 and ending in 1940".

So this decade will likely be remembered as 2000-20009, and will be called something like "the Aughts", "the Zeroes" or (my absolute least favorite, but the one I keep seeing in media lately) "the Noughties".

*shudder*
(Please, historians of the future, anything but "the Noughties".)

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

This is the last year of the decade. This is also the last decade. It all comes to an end in December 2012

Wrong on both counts.


The new millenium was 2001, the new decade will be 2011, and even the modern day Mayans don't think 2012 is going to be the end of the world.

 

[megamania]

Wrong on both counts.


The new millenium was 2001, the new decade will be 2011, .

That's what I said. Note today is 2010 thus it is the last year of the decade. I did not post in 2009 on this thread

and even the modern day Mayans don't think 2012 is going to be the end of the world.

Oh I know but I can be hopeful you know.

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

That's what I said. Note today is 2010 thus it is the last year of the decade. I did not post in 2009 on this thread.

Ah, sneaky!

 

[Umbran]

A decade is a period of ten years. Any period of ten consecutive years is a decade. You can talk about the decade starting 1695 and ending 1704, if you like. You can start on the 0s or on the 1s, as you see fit.

 

[megamania]

A decade is a period of ten years. Any period of ten consecutive years is a decade. You can talk about the decade starting 1695 and ending 1704, if you like. You can start on the 0s or on the 1s, as you see fit.

Ah sneaky

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

A decade is a period of ten years. Any period of ten consecutive years is a decade. You can talk about the decade starting 1695 and ending 1704, if you like. You can start on the 0s or on the 1s, as you see fit.

Yes. And you can truly refer to "the 60's" as the decade between 1960-1969, for example. But when people talk of it being a new decade, as in according to some ordering system of itself and all previous years, then I hold they are in fact worng to say this is the start of "the new decade." To do so, you can then ask what the last decade was. They'll answer 1990-1999. Ask for the one before that. Repeat until you get all the way down to the beginning of AD, and whoops! Where'd that year 0 come from?

If someone wanted to say 2009 was the last year of the decade from 2000-2009, that's totally cool, albeit redundant. To say it the way most people do, however, is just plain incorrect.