What is the deal with "Decade" Talk?

[Kiddwell]

Do the fine folks at ESPN not realize that a decade is ten years, not nine? The Twenty-First Century's first decade ends on December 31st, 2010.

Reminds Kiddwell of the numbskulls who were trumpeting the year 2000 as the "new millennium." Huh? A millennium is 1000 years. It starts with "year one" and ends with "year thousand." So the END of the second millennium would be its one-thousandth year--that is, 1000 X 2 = 2000.

Correspondingly, the BEGINNING of the new millennium (the third) would be year two thousand and ONE. <Kiddwell is ranting.>

Bardo et al, try "end of decade" talk again December, 2010...when the decade REALLY ends.

:]

[tobizag]

1/1/2000-12/31/2000 1 year
1/1/2001-12/31/2001 2 years
1/1/2002-12/31/2002 3 years
1/1/2003-12/31/2003 4 years
1/1/2004-12/31/2004 5 years
1/1/2005-12/31/2005 6 years
1/1/2006-12/31/2006 7 years
1/1/2007-12/31/2007 8 years
1/1/2008-12/31/2008 9 years
1/1/2009-12/31/2009 10 years

if you start at 2001, then yes. but the common way of thinking was to assume 2000 as the new decade/century/millenium (which yes, assumes a year "0"...but still)

[ronh_pm]

Didnt we go through this 10 years ago...or mabye that was a decade ago...and isn't every year the end of a decade?

[Kiddwell]

100 years (a century) divided by 10 = 10 decades per century, with the first decade starting with year one. Thus, 2001, 2002, etc. right up to 2010.

<Kiddwell is weeping, pulling out his hair, kicking his faithful dog Towzer>

:[

[KStyles]

A decade is a period of ten years. The word is derived (via French) from the Late Latin decadem, accusative of decas, from Greek decas, from deca. The other words for spans of years also come from Latin: lustrum (5 years), century (100 years), millennium (1000 years).

Although any period of ten years is a decade,[1][2] a convenient and frequently referenced interval is based on the tens digit of the calendar year, as in using 1960s to represent the decade from 1960 to 1969.[3][4] Often, for brevity, only the tens part is mentioned (60s or sixties), although this may leave it uncertain which century is meant. These references are frequently used to encapsulate pop culture or other widespread phenomena that dominated such a decade, as in The Great Depression of the 1930s. For example, the decade commonly referred to as the "two thousands" or rarely the "Triple-Aughts" ended on December 31st, 2009.

Some writers[5] like to point out that since the common calendar starts from the year 1, its first full decade contained the years from 1 to 10, the second decade from 11 to 20, and so on. The interval from the year 2001 to 2010 could thus be called the 201st decade, using ordinal numbers. However, contrary to practices in referencing centuries, ordinal references to decades are quite uncommon even in academics.

In addition to the interpretations noted above, a decade may refer to an arbitrary span of 10 years. For example, the statement "during his last decade, Mozart explored chromatic harmony to a degree rare at the time," merely refers to the last 10 years of Mozart's life without regard to which calendar years are encompassed.

Thus, an unqualified reference to, for example, "the decade" or "this decade" strictly speaking may have multiple interpretations, and one must consider whether the context is a cultural reference, an ordinal reference, or some other context.

Any period of 10 years is a decade. Using ordinal decades, this would be incorrect, but as the article says and popular culture shows, not many people use ordinal decades. ESPN simply said end of the decade, and they're talking about a period of the last 10 years not an ordinal decade. Bardo is correct in using the term "end of decade," and most viewers probably assume he isn't talking about ordinal decades but the common decade that most people tend to use.

[webspinnre]

depends on whether you'd rather count 0-9 or 1-10.

[kclubfounder]

If you agree the century starts on 1/1/2000, and I agree with that theory, then the 1st decade of the 21st century ended on 12/31/09. And the end of the 21st century will be 12/31/2099.

[kclubfounder]

Also, when I turned 40, I finished my 4th decade of life. My 5th decade on this planet started when I was 40 years old and will end at the end of my 49th year, when I turn 50.

[kdaleb]

Ahh... I always knew that 1990 was really part of the 80's... and 2000 was really part of the 90's.

[alaskazagnut]

Any way we look at it....

we have lost the most valuable thing in the universe. Time. We are ten years older and ten years closer to DEATH.

We can all agree that this decade has been one of "Excellence" and we are all honored to have been Zags decade. Casey Calvary's tip in 10 years ago changed our lives irreparably.