I meant it as an order-of-magnitude notation, so means more like 10,000-90,000. Eg. calling the function 3,000 times is OK, but 30,000 is too much.
Odd notation, yes, but I've picked it up somewhere along the way.
I think it follows naturally from speech. People say "order ten thousand" pretty naturally. Big-O notation is often vocalized as "order". But technically it's a a clash of ideas when written that way.
