Word: naughts
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...once scorned as the devil's work. It is such a familiar number today that it may be hard to believe there was a time--hundreds of years, actually--when our species counted and spoke but had no concept of zero. Seife and Kaplan both trace the history of naught, from its inception in Babylon around 300 B.C. through Athens, India and Europe later in the Middle Ages. It took Western mathematicians so long to accept zero because of their reluctance to treat nothing as something. Zero was equated with the abyss, the void, the unknown--all psychologically unpleasant subjects...
Reaction to the end of the millennium, though, is proving Barnum wrong. Barring a last-minute rush of millennial lunacy, all the riot plans locked deep in the vaults of America's cities will be for naught...
However, inconsistent shooting and post-play woes removed the Crimson from serious contention by the midpoint of Ivy schedule. After Fisher went down with mononucleosis for the final month of the season, it seemed that Harvard's mid-season improvements would go for naught...
...next day, as I sat comfortably on the train, I realized that the warnings had been for naught. The train's route ran alongside the A30 highway, which had been opened especially to accommodate eclipse traffic. We waved to a happy woman in a silver BMW convertible who was speeding along the highway with no other cars in sight. There was a jubilant mood among the other passengers in our car. They downed wine and beer and talked excitedly of their plans to soak up some rays before the eclipse...
...next day, as I sat comfortably on the train, I realized that the warnings had been for naught. The train's route ran alongside the A30 highway, which had been opened especially to accommodate eclipse traffic. We waved to a happy woman in a silver BMW convertible who was speeding along the highway with no other cars in sight. There was a jubilant mood among the other passengers in our car. They downed wine and beer and talked excitedly of their plans to soak up some rays before the eclipse...