what's a decade? [split]

[AS]

With one season left to go, who will it be?

There are two seasons left in this decade.

So you think the 1990s started in 1991???

The 2010s start in 2010...

[guru]

Re: who will be the Athletes Of The Decade?

With one season left to go, who will it be?

There are two seasons left in this decade.

So you think the 1990s started in 1991???

The 2010s start in 2010...

And I suppose you celebrate New Years on January 0?

[Powell]

Re: who will be the Athletes Of The Decade?

So you think the 1990s started in 1991???

The 2010s start in 2010...

And the first decade of our era started in year 0?

[Triplej]

Re: who will be the Athletes Of The Decade?

With one season left to go, who will it be?

There are two seasons left in this decade.

So you think the 1990s started in 1991???

The 2010s start in 2010...

And I suppose you celebrate New Years on January 0?

From a dictionary definition:
"...officially a ten-year period beginning with the year 1, as 1921-1930, 1931-1940, etc...."

[skiboo]

Re: who will be the Athletes Of The Decade?

With one season left to go, who will it be?

There are two seasons left in this decade.

So you think the 1990s started in 1991???

The 2010s start in 2010...

And I suppose you celebrate New Years on January 0?

From a dictionary definition:
"...officially a ten-year period beginning with the year 1, as 1921-1930, 1931-1940, etc...."

Not quite:

"a period of ten years beginning with a year whose last digit is zero: the decade of the 1980s. "

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/decade

Funny to think some people would include 2000 as part of the 1990s! :lol:

[trackhead]

Re: who will be the Athletes Of The Decade?

[quote=skiboo][quote=Triplej][quote=guru][quote=AS][quote=trackhead][quote="gh":58qbhigy]
With one season left to go, who will it be?
[/quote]

There are two seasons left in this decade.[/quote]

So you think the 1990s started in 1991???

The 2010s start in 2010...[/quote]


And I suppose you celebrate New Years on January 0?[/quote]

From a dictionary definition:
"...officially a ten-year period beginning with the year 1, as 1921-1930, 1931-1940, etc...."[/quote]

Not quite:

[b]"a period of ten years beginning with a year whose last digit is zero: the decade of the 1980s. "[/b]


[url="http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/decade"]http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/decade[/url]


Funny to think some people would include 2000 as part of the 1990s! :lol:[/quote:58qbhigy]
Zero has no value and counting begins with the number one.

Presumably, the first decade of the first millennium of the common era was 1-10, since there was no year 0. Fast forward 2000 years, and this decade is running 2001-2010. It's the same 1-10.

[Brettboy]

A decade starts with a zero!!

[skiboo]

Apparently there is "official" and "common" meaning to decade:

From Webster's New World College Dictionary:

1. officially a ten-year period beginning with the year 1, as 1921-1930, 1931-1940, etc.
2. in common usage, a ten-year period beginning with a year 0, as 1920-1929, 1930-1939, etc.

found at:

http://www.yourdictionary.com/decade

I'd find it very odd if T&FN discounted performances from the year 2000 in their voting for Athlete of the Decade. What years were considered in voting for athlete of the 1990s?

[gh]

You can find any kind of whack definitions you want online.

A nice solid hard copy of Merriam-Webster will tell you that a decade is a period of 10 years.

There is no fixed starting point.

There is no competent user of the English language who would fail to comprehend that if you said somebody was the best at their trade "in the last decade" that you were referring to the last 10 years. Just as with century and millennium (not to be confused with the religion-driven The Millennium).

When the common folk (that's us) of a "decade" we speak of a 10-year period that starts with the same number in the 10s spot (1900 to 1909, 1910 to 1919, and so on ad finitum).

T&F's AOD choices for the '60s, '70s, '80s & 90s were all made as the x9 year completed, as will we so do at the end of this year.

And yes, our century choices included 1999, but not 2000. We didn't count the 20th century from the birth of christ; we counted the century (100-year period) that started with 1900 and ended with 1999 (centuries dependent on the 100s spot).

So let's cease detracting from a fun and interesting argument about athletes, mk?

[Marlow]

A decade starts with a zero!!

To obvious to be questioned. A decade goes 0-9; a century goes 1-0, although Jan 1, 2000 started a new millennium!

[rainy.here]

Re: who will be the Athletes Of The Decade?

Zero has no value and counting begins with the number one.

You've never programmed, have you? Counting ALWAYS starts at 0 .

[Powell]

A decade goes 0-9

So the first decade AD lasted only 9 years?

a century goes 1-0, although Jan 1, 2000 started a new millennium!

So the year 2000 started a new decade and millenium, but was still in the old century? Wow :shock:

[gh]

as always, one should play little attention to Marlow's ramblings.

[Marlow]

as always, one should play little attention to Marlow's ramblings.

Do so at your pedantic peril. Only pedants are restricted to what others have told them. My pronouncement was as a TOE, i.e., what IS, as opposed to what the schoolmarms say.

a. The decade of the 90s went from 1/1/90 - 12/31/99
b. The 20th century went from 1/01/1901 to 12/31/2000
c. 1/1/2000 was the start of a new millennium for all BUT the pedants. 1/1/2001 was nothing.

Your blithe dismissal only marks you as hopelessly mired in what The Man has brainwashed you into believing. :twisted:

[gh]

your definition of b (century) is correct as it stands, but that's a definition based on religion.

For T&FN, the century and the decades are aligned; same logical definition.