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My only option is 'eighteen and something' but I feel that it will not do when reading aloud formal texts, e.g. citations from legal documents included into some fiction books.

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I've seen it a lot in Victorian literature: things like "They had retired to the quiet town of N------." – ptomato Nov 20 '10 at 12:49
This is highly context-dependent, I think: what's the occasion for reading this aloud? If it's suitably informal (reading a story to children, for example), I'd say "in the year 18 mumble". – Marthaª Nov 20 '10 at 16:24
In a more formal context I might read it as "In the year eighteen hundred and something" – psmears Jan 16 '11 at 17:09
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3 Answers

up vote 5 down vote

Usually that kind of approximation is referenced as:

"In the eighteen hundreds, they decided to..."

It could be refined, if there is any addition clue about that period, into:

"In the early eighteen hundreds, they decided to..."

or

"In the late eighteen hundreds, they decided to..."

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up vote 0 down vote

I upvoted you because it's a good question, and I don't really know how to answer it. I suspect that, at the time that this device was commonplace, no one really anticipated that their work would be read aloud (much less the explosion of the audiobook format may decades later!)

When I read this kind of thing out loud to my family, I usually say "In the year eighteen[mumble mumble mumble]" but that's a humorous decision, not an informed one...

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up vote 0 down vote

How about "Eighteen blippety blip?"

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