Talk:Turn of the century

(Century/year relationship)
Stupid question but here goes. What century is the year 1782? It's the 18th century, corect ?

69.127.194.226 (talk) 21:13, 4 June 2008 (UTC)
 * Correct. Kingturtle (talk) 21:21, 4 June 2008 (UTC)


 * See also MOS:CENTURY -Whatsit369 (talk) 11:50, 31 August 2018 (UTC)

Turn of the X century - does that mean the X century just ended, or just began?
I am not clear on this. The article says that the "turn of the 18th century" would take place around the year 1800. However, a previous version of the article (http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Turn_of_the_century&oldid=228689501) claims that the turn of the 18th century would have taken place around the year 1700.

So which is it? Are we currently in the turn of the 20th century or the turn of the 21st? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 199.86.26.15 (talk) 14:54, 23 September 2010 (UTC)

It seems to me that the current version of this article is wrong. I would define the phrase 'turn of the century' as meaning the period around the time that the specified century turned to the next one. So the turn of the 20th century would be the end 1999-2000 or thereabouts. The turn of the 18th century would then be around 1799-1800. Since this is in doubt I feel that the main article should bear a warning. Strangely the author's reference supports this interpretation rather than the one he gives in the main text. Maybe the author is just confused. —Preceding unsigned comment added by G4oep (talk • contribs) 15:54, 18 October 2010 (UTC)
 * Turn of the 20th Century is roughly synonymous with beginning of the 20th Century - it just extends back a decade or so into the late 19th Century. Turn of the nth Century is never end of the nth Century. Fan |  talk  09:59, 19 January 2011 (UTC)

I've puzzled over this myself, and arrived at the following: If during the 20th Century, one could say "Turn of the Century" and be understood to mean 1900, it would follow that "Turn of the last century" would imply 1900 now (to my native anglophone's ear, in spontaneous utterances by myself and others), making the last century clearly the 20th. Thus, "Turn of the 20th Century" is 1900, "Turn of the 19th Century" is 1800, etc. The statement in the 1990s "Turn of the next century" is similarly suggestive (and I can attest, also heard in the 90s). Somewhat OR, but I think it is the way forward in this case. -SM 23:56, 9 August 2012 (UTC)

Apologies on my colloquial explanation, but I would like to chime in, as a native English speaker, that I agree with SM and the current article on numbered centuries: turn of the 20th century should refer to 1899-1900, turn of the 21st century should refer to the 1999-2000, etc. -- where I disagree is when context is missing, if you just say "turn of the century", and the year is 1998, your brain automatically assumes it's the closest century you're talking about (so 1999-2000), same as if the year is 2002, then you're going backwards -- however, if it's 1998, and in a history lecture you hear "at the turn of the century", since you're reviewing past events, your brain assumes from the context that it's the previous turn that already happened -- the context is very important here. Likewise, the opposite. -- So, basically, the context of the statement is more or less what determines if you're talking about the previous or the next century. If there is zero context provided, then it's probably safe in most (or all) circumstances to assume the previous turn and not the next. BrainSlugs83 (talk) 21:00, 12 May 2014 (UTC)

Article Contradicts Itself? -- RE: Turn of the X century - does that mean the X century just ended, or just began?
The second to last paragraph states that you should avoid using "turn of the XXth century", etc. because its ambiguous, but then the last paragraph advocates for it, going on to state clear examples of how it works, and what it means, and how it can be migrated to apply to millenniums (applying the same rules consistently to millenniums as it did to centuries). BrainSlugs83 (talk) 20:49, 12 May 2014 (UTC)

Capitalization?

I take it that the term does not need to be capitalized? Since it is not mentioned...????--24.177.0.156 (talk) 13:02, 16 August 2015 (UTC)

Reference?
The one (already questionable) source provided (http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/CMS_FAQ/Numbers/Numbers17.html) takes you to "Page Not Found." Whatsit369 (talk) 02:34, 5 October 2017 (UTC)

Dicdef?
Is this article ever going to say anything more than a dictionary definition and usage notes? If not, I would suggest soft redirecting and adding anything relevant to the Wiktionary entry. SpinningSpark 19:05, 22 February 2019 (UTC)
 * I agree. – filelakeshoe (t / c) 🐱 08:06, 27 May 2020 (UTC)
 * I suggest merging this material into the start and end of centuries section of the century article. --Khajidha (talk) 11:39, 4 May 2021 (UTC)