Oohed and
oohing are classed as common, while
ahed and
ahing are treated as rare, as are
aahed and
aahing and
ahhed and
ahhing.
This seems inconsistent, given that
oohed is rarely used except in the context of
oohed and aahed, with various spellings of the last word. According to
this Google Ngram chart,
aahed is the most frequent spelling, followed by
ahhed and
ahed.
I think the best resolution of this incongruity will be to class
oohed and
oohing as rare from now on. No doubt everybody, seeing one of these words, will understand what is meant, but some would think it's not a "proper" word, or that it should be written
ooh-ed (as it sometimes is). In any case, I can't face dealing with future queries if I were to make
aahed common while leaving
ahed as rare.
Aargh!
