Does it sound weird to refer to the year 2000 as "the turn of the century"

[MrMatt]

It's so weird, growing up in the last two decades of the 1900s, when someone says 'turn of the century' I think of like 1900, and conjures up images of people getting their limbs hacked off in hospitals, the Old West, Europe being at war constantly, and Victorian culture. It's odd to me to hear someone now refer to the period around 2000 as being 'turn of the century'. Kinda makes me feel old

 

[lxskllr]

Turn of the century ONLY refers to 19th-20th AFAIC. I don't use that term for 20th-21st.

 

[40Hands]

Welcome to the 21st century.

 

[silverpig]

Turn of the millennium?

 

[Sea Moose]

It's so weird, growing up in the last two decades of the 1900s, when someone says 'turn of the century' I think of like 1900, and conjures up images of people getting their limbs hacked off in hospitals, the Old West, Europe being at war constantly, and Victorian culture. It's odd to me to hear someone now refer to the period around 2000 as being 'turn of the century'. Kinda makes me feel old

you are old

 

[dainthomas]

It does sound weird since the turn of the century was actually 2001.

 

[zbalat]

it does sound weird since the turn of the century was actually 2001.

bingo!!

 

[AyashiKaibutsu]

There's another one coming around in some decades don't sweat it.

 

[dfuze]

Never thought about it that way

 

[destrekor]

Woot! January will be the turn of the decade!

 

[marvdmartian]

It does sound weird since the turn of the century was actually 2001.

Yeah, loved it when we were getting to the end of 1999, and everyone was so excited that we were entering the new millennium!!! Uh, no......we're not. That doesn't happen for another year.

Almost always got that blank expression, like they were completely flummoxed by the concept!

 

[Ika]

yeah I still have a hard time wrapping my head around the fact that 2003 was seven years ago. It was worse last year when three of the four numbers matched, though.

 

[MrMatt]

yeah I still have a hard time wrapping my head around the fact that 2003 was seven years ago. It was worse last year when three of the four numbers matched, though.

Tell me about it. I graduated undergrad in 2004. Since then there's been 1.5 complete cycles of students at the college.

 

[alevasseur14]

It doesn't sound any stranger to me than referring to the day before today as yesterday.

Five times fast? LOL.

 

[pmv]

Yeah, loved it when we were getting to the end of 1999, and everyone was so excited that we were entering the new millennium!!! Uh, no......we're not. That doesn't happen for another year.

Almost always got that blank expression, like they were completely flummoxed by the concept!

In a sense, yes, though its not the fault of those with the blank expression that the guy who came up with the numbering system neglected to include a year zero. Seems that logically he should have, the blank expression folk are right and he was wrong.

And given that we only decided on this whole numbering system retrospectively (i.e. centuries after Christ died) its all rather arbitrary anyway.

Is it not now generally accepted that Christ was born somewhere around 5BC? In which case, if what we are concerned with is how many thousands of years it is since Christ's birth, the new Millennium started sometime around 1995. Alternatively we can just celebrate a new Most Significant Digit and celebrate 2000.

2001 was just the start of the next 1000 year block in an arbitrary numbering system that's based on an error.