BETWEEN THE LINES: Y2K SCARE BRINGS UNEXPECTED CHANGE IN LANGUAGE

Y2K. Millenium bug. Whatever you choose to call it, it's consuming the thoughts and conversations of the civilized world.

The new millenium is on the minds of everyone from political pundits hoping to predict the presidential race to the Average Joe concerned about his direct deposit savings account at the local bank.

It seems that the entire world is so caught up in the new millenium scare that they aren't even concerned with what's happening today.

Everyone from emergency management directors to religion columnists are expressing concern about what happens when we reach Jan. 1, 2000.

Will the water systems continue to work? Will electricity still reach my home? Will there be telephone service? Should I stock up on bottled water and food?

I don't know about the rest of you but I'm not that concerned. I doubt the world will end. People existed long before computers were created and will likely continue to thrive.

You won't find stockpiles of canned goods and bottled water stored in my basement, in preparation for the Y2K disaster many are predicting.

There isn't an underground safe filled with my life's savings buried in the backyard. Mostly, that is because I haven't amassed much of a life savings at age 25.

But what has amazed me is the number of people who are going absolutely berserk over Y2K. My aunt told a story about her mother-in-law who is storing 200 pounds each of flour, sugar, rice, vanilla and several hundred bottles of water for the new millenium.

Even the people at Oxford University Press are getting in on the act. Though it wasn't planned for release by the new millenium, it seems that a new version of the Oxford English Dictionary has hit the shelves in time for Jan. 1, 2000.

It seems the dictionary's publishers have decided there are 2,000 new words and phrases that should be included in the latest edition.

When the New Oxford Dictionary of English hits the bookstore shelves it will include some of the culture's newest phrases from computer terms to politically correct nouns and adjectives.

The 350,000-word dictionary is the first written from scratch in 70 years. It took 30 editors and 60 consultants $5 million and six years to compile the book to discover what the world is saying.

Here's a rundown of what made the dictionary pages:

-- Road rage. Violent anger caused by the stress and frustration of driving in heavy traffic.

-- Full monty. A British comedy movie title, which also means to "want the full amount."

-- E-mail abbreviations like LOL, were included. LOL means "laughing out loud."

Other words were "mouse potato," another term for someone who spends lots of time on a computer and "Blairite," a person who is a follower of British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Of course, the Y2K millenium bug is also included.

The new edition, shows "how words are really used -- not just their formal meanings," said a press spokesman for Oxford Press.

In some cases, I'm guessing that formal is best. It just doesn't seem right to change the dictionary entries at a time when people are fearing the world's end at the year's end.

But maybe I'm wrong. Who knows? I guess we'll all have to wait for Y2K to find out.

~Laura Johnston is a copy editor for the Southeast Missourian.