I came across this phrase today in a rather humorous column:
The last time I did [something] … was 2000-never.
I've never seen this construct before. My guess is, that this means, the author did something the last time before the year 2000. Is that correct? Could I get some more examples?
Here is the phrase in context, to help give a better idea of how it's being used:
For example, ordering anything on the internet and paying more than the cost of the item in shipping fees is pretty depressing. As a general rule, that puts a halt to my eCommerce experience before I press the "checkout" button. The last time I paid $15 for a great t-shirt and paid $16 to ship it was 2000-never.
The author seems to have a very good command of the English language, so now I'm wondering how prevalent this expression might be.
Best Answer
I've never heard this phrase before, but what it sounds like the speaker is trying to say is that they've never before done whatever "it" refers to. For example if you said "The last time I did [x] was 2002," you'd be stating the last time you did it. "two thousand-never" (instead of "two thousand-two") seems to be a funny way of saying you've never done something. So I'd say the sentence probably has identical meaning if you just remove the "2000-" and say "The last time I did [x] was never."
Now note that this isn't grammatically correct; you can't actually say "The last time I did [x] was never." The correct thing to say would be "I have never done [x]". But the joke still stands, I think.