Y2K

[wahy-too-key]

abbreviation

1. the year 2000.

2. Also called Y2K bug. Also called millennium bug. Also called Y2K problem,. a bug that could cause computers or software to misinterpret a year after 1999 as having the first two digits 19 instead of 20, due to the coding of dates using only the last two digits of the four-digit year.

adjective

1. relating to or characteristic of the late 1990s and early 2000s.

   The outfit merges Y2K aesthetics with contemporary trends.

Y2K

noun

1. another name for the year 2000 _ad (esp referring to the millennium bug)

Word History and Origins

Origin of Y2K¹

First recorded in 1995–2000; Y(ear) + 2 + K symbol for the number 1000

Word History and Origins

Origin of Y2K¹

C20: _y ( _ear ) + 2 + _k (in the sense: thousand)

Example Sentences

Young people thrifting clothes as they embrace their Y2K or cottagecore aesthetics have helped secondhand shopping shed its stigma, turning it into a trend, not a necessity.

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The Y2K scare was fueled by intense media coverage.

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It’s possible that these younger colleagues are embracing Y2K style to pay homage and poke fun at the same time, writes Callum Borchers.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

But some are copying the Y2K aesthetic in a deliberate nod to the past.

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Rachel Zegler, one of the stars of “Y2K,” laughs as she recalls Mooney coming up to his young actors on set “to give us direction, and he’d be like, ‘Or not.

Read more on Los Angeles Times