Entering the OH zone

Journal Record, The (Oklahoma City), Sep 28, 1999 by Jack Rosenthal N.Y. Times News Service

The word of the `90s is probably millennium. It has not always been spelled correctly (n.b. Maidenform's Millenium undergarments). But the Western world is devoting energetic attention to the event, about 100 days hence, when three historic zeros click into place. Meanwhile, a practical problem remains concerning the first word of the next decade: what to call it.

The `90s can be characterized in many ways -- a decade of unimaginable American wealth, perhaps, or of Balkan savagery or of China's steady emergence. But whatever the label, the `90s have a name, just like the `80s that came before. The decade that comes after still does not, so here's a formal nomination: the `00s, pronounced the Ohs.

The `00s is, for one thing, numerically logical. For another, the rival possibilities fall short. The Aughties, for example, is how people referred to the first decade of this century. Today, that clanks quaintly, evoking a world of corsets and hot-water bottles. The Zeroes? That's disfigured for older Americans: To them, it refers to Japanese fighter planes in World War II. The Oh-Ohs? Too timid, implying a fearful anticipation of danger ahead.

The Ohs, by contrast, conveys a positive expectation of wonder and surprise. In that spirit, let me urge its adoption, if not by acclamation then at least by usage.

The new edition of The New York Times Manual of Style and Usage, due out in October from Times Books, is silent on the subject. Allan M. Siegal, The Times' style czar and the manual's co-author, with William G. Connolly, wishes to wait and see how popular usage develops. In other words, all who concur in "the Ohs" would do well to vote early and often. The more people there are who start using the term, the sooner it will win the respect it is, well, owed.