MILLENNIUM--Our 1000th Good Word!

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Dr. Goodword
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MILLENNIUM--Our 1000th Good Word!

Postby Dr. Goodword » Wed Oct 17, 2007 12:28 am

• millennium •

Pronunciation: mê-len-ni-êm • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Noun

Meaning: 1. A span of 1000 years. 2. A thousandth anniversary. 3. (Christianity) The 1000 years Christ will reign on Earth as predicted by the book of Revelation (20:1-5).

Notes: Today's Good Word is one of the most often misspelled words in English: most of us can't believe that both the L and the N are doubled—but they are. We chose this word today as the millennium Good Word. Yes, this is the millennial (thousandth) word we have sent out since beginning our series in 2004! As you can see, the adjective for today's word is millennial. Don't forget the preferable plural of this word is millennia.

In Play: Remember the "millennium bug"? The universal computer crash predicted because computer calendars were set to calculate only through 1999? It never showed up. If you are reading this, though, the millennial Good Word has shown up and we are very proud of it and hope to write a thousand more over the coming years. Keep the suggestions coming in.

Word History: Today's Good Word begins with Latin mille "thousand" and ends on a variant of Latin ann-us "year" plus the noun ending, -ium. No one knows where mille came from; in Greek "thousand" is khilioi (from which English borrowed kilo-) and milion is a Roman mile, 1000 paces. Annus (as in per annum) is yet another mystery. It apparently came from the past participle of a Proto-Indo-European word for "go, pass", as in time passed (past). However, we find no trace of it outside Latin. (In celebrating this milestone we are have to thank Andrew Shaffer, who created the works behind our feature, and Paul Ogden, Mary Jane Stoneburg, and Luciano Eduardo de Oliveira for their excellent editing. I make all the errors, of course, so credit any of those you see to me.)
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sluggo
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Re: MILLENNIUM--Our 1000th Good Word!

Postby sluggo » Wed Oct 17, 2007 12:41 am

Remember the "millennium bug"? The universal computer crash predicted because computer calendars were set to calculate only through 1999? It never showed up.
.....you mean --- this isn't 1907??

I too got the double-N epiphany back in '99.

Cead mille congratulations, Doc, and many happy (carriage) returns!
Stop! Murder us not, tonsured rumpots! Knife no one, fink!

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Postby Bailey » Wed Oct 17, 2007 11:17 am

but... it did happen, it just wasn't as widespread as most people feared, the concentration camps were in place should widespead anarchy occur, well I'm sure they won't go to waste. :?

mark lone-gunman Bailey

Today is the first day of the rest of your life, Make the most of it...
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Postby gailr » Wed Oct 17, 2007 8:27 pm

Another post-millenial-post...

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Postby Stargzer » Thu Oct 18, 2007 12:52 pm

but... it did happen, it just wasn't as widespread as most people feared, the concentration camps were in place should widespead anarchy occur, well I'm sure they won't go to waste. :?

mark lone-gunman Bailey
The only reason it wasn't more widespread is that IT professionals spent long hours in the several years leading up to Y2K patching or replacing antiquated systems. A few did slip through: someone in New York City received a bill for some unbelievable fine for an overdue book. As for utilities, I think a lot of them must have crossed their fingers. You can't bring down the entire electric grid or major pipelines just to run a test.

"To err is human; to really screw things up requires a computer."
Regards//Larry

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Postby Perry » Thu Oct 18, 2007 1:29 pm

"To err is human; to really screw things up requires a computer."
I saw on someone's website, "Failure isn't an option. With Microsoft comes written into the program,", or words to that effect.
"Time is nature's way of keeping everything from happening all at once. Lately it hasn't been working."
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