Origin of Y2KY(ear) + 2 + K, abbreviation, abbreviated for the number 1000 the year 2000
- Of or relating to the year 2000.
- Of or relating to a defect in the code of a computer program caused when a year is represented by its last two digits only and the program interprets that year as falling inclusively between 1900 and 1999 instead of between 2000 and 2099: Y2K compliance; Y2K testing.
Origin of Y2KY(ear) + 2K, informal expression for the number 2000 (using K, symbol for 1000).
y2k - Computer Definition
y2k - Investment & Finance Definition
Shorthand for the year 2000, it came to mean specifically the potential difficulty that corporate, governmental, and financial computer systems might have encountered if programming changes were not made. Before 2000, many computer programs allocated space for only two digits in the year instead of four (98 meant 1998, 99 meant 1999, and so on). Once Jan. 1, 2000 arrived, computers would have read the year as 1900 and potentially wiped out data or locked-up computer systems.