I find it exceedingly strange that people are still referring to contemporary years as “two thousand and whatever.” I mean, I figured it would be a few years of that weirdness at the turn of the century, and things would sort of relax into “Twenty whatever.” When reading early writings from the previous 2 centuries, the formality of writers calling the years “Nineteen hundred and eighteen” is always comical. It sounds as if they were using an abacus to figure out what year it was. But it typically didn’t take too long before they were just calling it “Nineteen fourteen” or whatever. But we’re almost a quarter of the way through our own dreadful century and people are still referring to the present year as “two thousand nineteen.” I’m hopeful that because next year’s number will match the century number, people will see/hear the awkward asymmetrical bulkiness of saying “Two thousand twenty” and finally shift to sleeker, sexier, symmetrical “twenty twenty.” Of course, looking to the present generation of American speakers who even still continue to stupidly and compulsively bleat the insipid “I know, right?” for any kind of linguistic grace will only result in crushing disappointment.
I’m just so over it. I can’t even.
N.P.: “Breathless” – Shankar Mahadevan
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