Fromnought(“zero”) +-ies(“plural of-y”), in imitation of the names of other decades (twenties,thirties, etc).
noughties pl (plural only)
- (chiefly UK, sometimes capitalized) Thedecade consisting of the last year of the previous century and the first nine years of the next: from 1900 to 1909, 2000 to 2009, etc.
1914, Amherst College, “Amherst graduates' quarterly”, in(Please provide the book title or journal name), volume 4, page 6:Our readers — and contributors — are apt to elect a good deal according to years. The seventies and eighties, we may suppose, are concerned for the large educational and cultural interests of their Alma Mater; the nineties are deep in the practical and business activities; thenoughties are not naughty, but still young enough to sport a fantastic costume at reunion and let the college wag as it will; the oneties are the really wise as to what the college ought to be, especially on its athletic side, but as contributors modest.
1933,Poetry: A Magazine of Verse, volume43, Chicago, page36:I doubt if any modern poet can boast of as loud acclaim or as liberal reward as Longfellow received for Evangeline or Tennyson for the Idylls, but his fate today is somewhat kinder than that of Poe or Whitman, and much gentler than the stony dole dealt out to poets in the nineties andnoughties.
1934, Parker Morell,Diamond Jim: The Life and Times of James Buchanan Brady, page219:During the NaughtyNoughties, Jim was worth between ten and twelve million dollars and his income was more than even he could reasonably spend.
1966, Jean Gould,Modern American playwrights, page30:Every young woman with "advanced" ideas must live in Paris during the decade of the "noughties," as they were dubbed by some wit.
2009[2006], Naomi Rosh White, “Tertiary education in thenoughties: the student perspective”, in Malcolm Tight, editor,The Routledge international handbook of higher education:
2008, Cunningham, Gleeson, Regional Cultural Centre Letterkenny,Painting in thenoughties: 21st century British and Irish abstract painting:
2009, Brenda Polan, Roger Tredre,The Great Fashion Designers, page237:An obsession with designer handbags, at ever-spiralling prices, became a phenomenon of the mid-noughties, driven principally by Louis Vuitton.
2021 November 5, Jess Cartner-Morley, “The noughties are back – but do they warrant a revival?”, inThe Guardian[1]:Thenoughties are the bridge between the pre-internet era, and the life we live now.
- Sometimes avoided because it is ahomophone withnaughties; it is even sometimes spelledNaughties.
- Less precise phrasing such asat theturn of the century orin the early years of the century is more common.
- In context, as during that decade or in the immediately following years, or in a list of decades,the 1900s/nineteen-hundreds and2000s is commonly used, but this becomes ambiguous in a broader context, as the1900s more commonly means the entire century, and the2000s may mean the entire millennium.
- The first decade of the twentieth century is frequently referred to as theEdwardian era in the UK, as it coincides very closely with the reign of King Edward VII.
