This might be a stupid question, but for that I’ve also been afraid to ask. But, I’ve been confused most of the time when people say “x-th century”. Why is the period 1900-1999 called the 20th century and not 19th century?
>In popular perception and practice, centuries are structured by grouping years based on sharing the ‘hundreds’ digit(s). In this model, the n-th century starts with the year that ends in “00” and ends with the year ending in “99”; for example, the years 1900 to 1999, in popular culture, constitute the 20th century. *(Wikipedia)*
What does it mean ‘in popular culture’? Why couldn’t, let’s say, the 19th century constitutes years within 1900-1999 and not the years before?
In: 1
Imagine a person who’s 22 and a half years old.
That means they’ve already completed 22 full years, and are now working on the 23rd but it’s not done yet. They might say “I’m 22” but they are in fact IN their 23rd year.
This is the sense that “in the Nth Century” means.
If the year is 1950 that doesn’t mean you are 50 years into the 19th century. It means you already HAD 19 full centuries so far when you passed the 1900 mark, and now it’s been 50 years into the next century that’s not complete yet.
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