i can't explain why, but hearing the term 'zeroth' in english really fucks with my head.

like, yeah, i'm quite used to 0-based indexing in my line of work obviously. but stuffs[0] == "the first element of stuffs" and that's what I would say when communicating verbally to the person looking at the code with me.

but like, take a use case where you are actually referring to something that precedes the first in a series, such as the number of updates on an original thing. then zeroth is indeed an accurate description, but still just rings such discord in my ear upon hearing it.

kinda like they say about 'moist' describing anything but a cake.