What's that you say?

You might think "the turn of the century" would refer to the most recent such turn, as it did throughout the 20th Century.

Would you be wrong?

You would be if Andrea Mitchel, yesterday, and Pete Williams chatting with her, were right.

Talking about advances in medical science related to vaccines, Pete spoke of developments beginning just after "the turn of the century" and it was entirely clear he meant the turn from the 19th to the 20th century and not the most recent turn, the one from the 20th to the 21st.

So, has "the turn of the century" become stuck in time?

Or has the reference come to depend on context?

Well, maybe neither.

Wikipedia says that in British English "the turn of the nth century" refers to the years surrounding the first year of the nth century.

On the other hand, in American English it can refer either to the years surrounding the first year of the nth century or those surrounding the first year of the n+1th century.

Speakers and writers need to rely on context to disambiguate or employ some other and unambiguous expression as I have done, picking up on like treatment of "the night of" and "the winter of" in French, using "the turn from the nth to the n+1th century".

But it also says "the turn of the century" refers in fact to the most recent turn and no other.

And if that's right Andrea and Pete were wrong.

But of course, for the years of their upbringing and into their adulthood, "the turn of the century" did refer exclusively to the turn from the 19th to the 20th century.

So it was natural enough for them to use it that way.

And, anyway, context did the work of clearly indicating which turn was meant, even if the usage was not strictly correct.