at the cusp between * centuries

[White Hat]

I'm translating an article and have stumbled upon the same grey area once again.

I need to express in English a period of time between the end of a century and the beginning of the following century - a kind of border between them. There are four ways to put it I've seen.

Let's say we're talking about something that had been taking place between 1895 and 1902.

1) At the turn of the 20th century;
2) At the cusp between the 19th and 20th centuries (by Kay Young -> link);
3) Between the 19th and 20th centuries;
4) At the cusp of the 20th century (by William J. Bernstein -> link).

I kinda like the second one. Does it sound OK and does it drive the idea home? (I want to mention both centuries). Thank you in advance.

 

[Jaskin]

Hi,
Please note I'm not a teacher nor a native speaker.

Not sure if my post would be of any help, but as for me the first is most straight forward.
I'm still checking how the cusp is being used.

n-gram link - not sure how to comment that.

Cheers.

 

[MikeNewYork]

I prefer the first. It would be easily understood.

 

[Tdol]

So do I. There's also fin de siècle, which might help in some contexts, like art.

 

[emsr2d2]

I prefer the first but you could use "on the cusp of the 19th and 20th centuries". The only place I generally hear "cusp" is when people are talking about their Zodiac sign (star sign). My mum was born on the cusp of Aquarius and Pisces.

 

[White Hat]

Well, if such an intelligent native speaker as emsr2d2 opts for "on the cusp of", I'll just go ahead and take it on board. Cheers!

 

[emsr2d2]

Bear in mind that I did say that I generally only hear the phrase used when referring to signs of the Zodiac.

 

[Roman55]

I am not a teacher.

I was going to suggest 'on the cusp' rather than 'at the cusp', but if you want to mention both centuries, it wouldn't work for me.

"On the cusp of the 20th century", means at the very beginning, and implies a change in state from the 19th to the 20th century.

As for its use in astrology I think the correct terminology would be Aquarius on the cusp with Pisces.
This is because it is essentially a geometric concept and almost all of its meanings are related in some way to curves. This goes for Astrology as well.

 

[Rover_KE]

The examples in the first few pages here favour 'on the cusp' by a large majority.

I haven't looked at them all, but they seem to back up Jaskin's n-gram link.

 

[Gillnetter]

The examples in the first few pages here favour 'on the cusp' by a large majority.

I haven't looked at them all, but they seem to back up Jaskin's n-gram link.

I would opt for adding some words which pointed out that it was near the cusp, not on the cusp. The range (1895 to 1902) seems to be too large to be one point.

 

[White Hat]

I appreciate everyone's input. Basically, I'm looking for something that would NOT sound wrong to the ears of a native speaker of English.

Having made up my mind to stick with "on the cusp of the 20th and 21st centuries", I attempted today to double-check the usage and was delighted to come across the phrase in a number of sources written by native speakers of English.

Here is one such example -> link (Curious Pursuits: Occasional Writing by Margaret Atwood).