For those of you who are weary of the gloom-and-doom reports about what could happen because of the Y2K computer problem, here’s an article about the upcoming date change that shouldn’t worry anyone — unless you’re a lexicographer.
Our stress-free topic is what to call the first decade of the next century — the years from 2000 to 2010.
The question arises because there’s no term in American English that fills the bill.
Asked how folks handled it 100 years ago, Northwestern University history professor Henry Binford said that, in effect, they didn’t; that is, there was no consensus about a nametag, that no designation for the decade really caught on.
“Some people,” he said, “especially in England and among anglophiles, spoke of (the first decade) as the `Aughts,’ picking up on the British usage of `naught’ or `aught’ for zero.”
One of the more fervent supporters of this solution is Tribune columnist James Coates, who recently delivered a convincing argument why any right-thinking person ought to opt for the Aughts.
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One reason, he wrote, is that the word can also be applied neatly to individual years, such as “double aught” for the year 2000, “aught one” for 2001 and so on.
But Coates seems in the wee minority. A poll by The Futurist magazine found that the first choice by far was “the Two-Thousands” with 64 percent of the votes — despite the rather clunky reading this approach gives to individual years: “two-thousand-one, two-thousand-two. . .”
Rounding out the Top Five were “the Twenty-Ohs” (9 percent); “the Oh-Ohs” and the “Double Ohs,” which tied for third with 5 percent each, and “the Zeros,” which got 4 percent.
Can we not come up with something better?
Those who wish to try, send your suggestions to Tempo, baiduhai, 435 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago IL 60611.
Or e-mail to [email protected].
We can only hope that this exercise won’t be a wasted effort. Not to worry, but some people have predicted that whether the Y2K thing turns out to be a minor glitch or a big disaster, the world is destined to come to an end on Jan. 1.