mid-aughts

[Wilson Gray]

When I was a child during the '40's, I was taught to use "_least_
common denominator" and "nought" instead of "_lowest_ common
denominator" and "zero." Although I've managed to adjust to "zero," I
still say and write "least common denominator." However, I am forced
to admit that the number of occasions upon which I need to speak or
write of the "least common denominator" is vanishingly small.

-Wilson

On 3/14/07, Chris F Waigl <chris at lascribe.net> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Chris F Waigl <chris at LASCRIBE.NET>
> Subject:      Re: mid-aughts
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> sagehen wrote:
>
> >> "Mid-aughts" is a useful term that will likely grow even more useful
> >> in retrospect, as is often the case with such temporal labels. Note
> >> that it has already appeared attributively ("mid-aughts America",
> >> "mid-aughts tech story") and predicatively ("painfully mid-aughts",
> >> "very mid-aughts").
> >>
> >>
> >  Have "noughts" or "naughts" totally disappeared from our language? We used
> > to say "back in aught-three" for comic effect for stuff that went on in an
> > earlier period.  Now it appears that that particular bit of silliness will
> > be taken to mean 2003!
> > AM
> >
>
> On this side of the English-speaking world, "noughties" seems to be
> winning out. Here's a bunch of examples from the Guardian:
> http://xrl.us/vbkp .
>
> Chris Waigl
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>


--
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-----
                                                      -Sam'l Clemens

Dope wil get you through times of no money better than money will get
you through times of no dope.
-----
                                         -Free-Wheeling Franklin

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org