what's the origin of the phrase "ok"?

Question

what's the origin of the phrase "ok"?

Answer 1

I always understood it to stand for 'Orl Korrekt' ... a jokey misspelling of 'All Correct'. (That is what my father, a writer and English scholar, used to say.)



It certainly seems to be an 'Americanism'. I seem to remember my mother frowning on the use of it in the '50s. She abhorred anything that 'degraded' the English language and, though she had American cousins and several American friends, she looked upon American as rather 'colloquial'. That was quite a common attitude, I'm afraid, amongst English people born in the early 20th Century.



Bill Bryson says: "Of all the new words to issue from the New World, the quintessential Americanism without any doubt was O.K. Arguably America's single greatest gift to international discourse, O.K. is the most grammatically versatile of words, able to serve as an adjective ("Lunch was O.K."), verb ("Can you O.K. this for me?"), noun ("I need your O.K. on this"), interjection ("O.K., I hear you"), and adverb ("We did O.K."). It can carry shades of meaning that range from casual assent ("Shall we go?" "O.K."), to great enthusiasm ("O.K.!"), to lukewarm endorsement ("The party was O.K."), to a more or less meaningless filler of space ("O.K., may I have your attention please?").

It is a curious fact that the most successful and widespread of all English words, naturalized as an affirmation into almost every language in the world, from Serbo-Croatian to Tagalog, is one that has no correct agreed spelling (it can be O.K., OK, or okay) and one whose origins are so obscure that it has been a matter of heated dispute almost since it first appeared. The many theories break down into three main camps:



1. It comes from someone's or something's initials-a Sac Indian chief called Old Keokuk, or a shipping agent named Obadiah Kelly, or from President Martin Van Buren's nickname, Old Kinderhook, or from Orrins-Kendall crackers, which were popular in the nineteenth century. In each of these theories the initials were stamped or scribbled on documents or crates and gradually came to be synonymous with quality or reliability.

2. It is adapted from some foreign or English dialect word or place name, such as the Finnish oikea, the Haitian Aux Cayes (the source of a particularly prized brand of rum), or the Choctaw okeh. President Woodrow Wilson apparently so liked the Choctaw theory that he insisted on spelling the word okeh.

3. It is a contraction of the expression "011 korrect," often said to be the spelling used by the semiliterate seventh President, Andrew Jackson.



This third theory, seemingly the most implausible, is in fact very possibly the correct one-though without involving Andrew Jackson and with a bit of theory one thrown in for good measure. According to Allen Walker Read of Columbia University, who spent years tracking down the derivation of O.K., a fashion developed among young wits of Boston and New York in 1838 of writing abbreviations based on intentional illiteracies. They thought it highly comical to write O.W. for "011 wright," O.K. for "011 korrect," K.Y. for "know yuse," and so on. O.K. first appeared in print on March 23, 1839, in the Boston Morning Post. Had that been it, the expression would no doubt have died an early death, but coincidentally in 1840 Martin Van Buren, known as Old Kinderhook from his hometown in upstate New York, was running for reelection as president, and an organization founded to help his campaign was given the name the Democratic O.K. Club. O.K. became a rallying cry throughout the campaign and with great haste established itself as a word throughout the country. This may have been small comfort to Van Buren, who lost the election to William Henry Harrison, who had the no-less-snappy slogan 'Tippecanoe and Tyler Too.' "



http://www.angelfire.com/my/happywombat/Bryson_Old_World_New_World.htm

Answer 2

The origin was the subject of scholarly debate for many years until Allen Walker Read showed that OK is based on a joke of sorts. OK is first recorded in 1839 but was probably in circulation before that date. During the 1830s there was a humoristic fashion in Boston newspapers to reduce a phrase to initials and supply an explanation in parentheses. Sometimes the abbreviations were misspelled to add to the humor. OK was used in March 1839 as an abbreviation for all correct, the joke being that neither the O nor the K was correct. Originally spelled with periods, this term outlived most similar abbreviations owing to its use in President Martin Van Buren's 1840 campaign for reelection. Because he was born in Kinderhook, New York, Van Buren was nicknamed Old Kinderhook, and the abbreviation proved eminently suitable for political slogans. This has led to many "folk" etymologies saying that O.K. derives from the 1840 election.

try this site for a fuller discussion of OK:

http://tafkac.org/language/etymology/ok_etymology_of.html

Answer 3

According to dictionary.com--

Word History: OK is a quintessentially American term that has spread from English to many other languages. Its origin was the subject of scholarly debate for many years until Allen Walker Read showed that OK is based on a joke of sorts. OK is first recorded in 1839 but was probably in circulation before that date. During the 1830s there was a humoristic fashion in Boston newspapers to reduce a phrase to initials and supply an explanation in parentheses. Sometimes the abbreviations were misspelled to add to the humor. OK was used in March 1839 as an abbreviation for all correct, the joke being that neither the O nor the K was correct. Originally spelled with periods, this term outlived most similar abbreviations owing to its use in President Martin Van Buren's 1840 campaign for reelection. Because he was born in Kinderhook, New York, Van Buren was nicknamed Old Kinderhook, and the abbreviation proved eminently suitable for political slogans. That same year, an editorial referring to the receipt of a pin with the slogan O.K. had this comment: “frightful letters... significant of the birth-place of Martin Van Buren, old Kinderhook, as also the rallying word of the Democracy of the late election, ‘all correct’.... Those who wear them should bear in mind that it will require their most strenuous exertions... to make all things O.K.”

Answer 4

"During the 1830s there was a humoristic fashion in Boston newspapers to reduce a phrase to initials and supply an explanation in parentheses. Sometimes the abbreviations were misspelled to add to the humor. OK was used in March 1839 as an abbreviation for all correct, the joke being that neither the O nor the K was correct."

Answer 5

There have been numerous attempts to explain the emergence of this curious colloquial expression, which seems to have swept into popular use in the US during the mid-19th century. Most of them are undoubtedly pure speculation. It does not seem at all likely, from the linguistic and historical evidence, that it derives from the Scots expression 'och aye', the Greek ola kala ('it is good'), the Choctaw Indian oke or okeh ('it is so'), the French aux Cayes ('from Cayes', a port in Haiti with a reputation for good rum) or au quai ('to the quay', as supposedly used by French-speaking dockers), or the initials of a railway freight agent called Obediah Kelly who is said to have written them on lading documents he had checked.



The oldest written references to 'OK' result from its adoption as a slogan by the Democratic party during the American Presidential election of 1840. Their candidate, President Martin Van Buren, was nicknamed 'Old Kinderhook' (after his birthplace in New York State), and his supporters formed the 'OK Club'.



This undoubtedly helped to popularize the term (though it did not get President Van Buren re-elected!). During the late 1830s there had been a brief but widespread craze in the US for humorous misspellings, and the form orl korrekt which was among them could explain the initials 'OK'. Such a theory has been supported by more than one distinguished American scholar, and is given in many dictionaries, including Oxford dictionaries.



The only other theory with at least a degree of plausibility is that the term originated among Black slaves of West African origin, and represents a word meaning 'all right, yes indeed' in various West African languages. Unfortunately, historical evidence enabling the origin of this expression to be finally and firmly established may be hard to unearth.

Answer 6

Jhn 10:23 And Jesus walked in the temple in Solomon's porch. Jhn 10:24 Then came the Jews round about him, and said unto him, How long dost thou make us to doubt? If thou be the Christ, tell us plainly. Jhn 10:25 Jesus answered them, I told you, and ye believed not: the works that I do in my Father's name, they bear witness of me. Jhn 10:26 But ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep, as I said unto you. Jhn 10:27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: - i am sure this answers you question Mat 25:31 ¶ When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory: Mat 25:32 And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth [his] sheep from the goats: Mat 25:33 And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left. . . . . Mat 25:46 And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal. <><

Answer 7

OK = 0K= Zero Kills

This was formed during world war one in the trenches. Communications where not that great, so when the commander wanted a head count, the officers would go through and have head counts conducted and report back OK (zero kills)

Answer 8

I heard something about some french sailors who would use the phrase ( as in Aux Cayes, a port in the Caribbean with especially good rum)

Answer 9

The letters, not to keep you guessing, stand for "oll korrect." They're the result of a fad for comical abbreviations that flourished in the late 1830s and 1840s.







(: haha i never ever even thought of questioning what ok meant!

Answer 10

I have heared that during the secession war, military wrote in a blackboard the number of dead everyday, so if there wasn't any dead they wrote 0 killed or 0 K, and then became the way to say that there were 0 killed, so everything was right (OK)

Answer 11

OK was an abbreviation used in world war 1 meaning 0 killed

Answer 12

Greece

Answer 13

Go to the link below, there is a very interesting article on the subject.

By the way that is an excellent question.

http://www.askoxford.com/asktheexperts/faq/aboutwordorigins/ok

Answer 14

I have heard it is the initials of Ola Kala (All right in greek), because greek port workers wrote it on boxes they had checked. I don't know if it is correct. Another explanation is that the workers were not greek, but they were misspelling the initials of All Correct.

Answer 15

It comes from the greek phrase "Ola Kala" and means everything's good. OK?

Answer 16

There was a manager guy with initials O and K. Since his intials were important his cronies asked each other were they had gotten the OK. iThis should be OK to you because its the truth, OK?

Answer 17

I asked this question myself 2 days ago and searched on internet. this is the origin : abbreviation of oll korrect, facetious alteration of all correct

Answer 18

1. Orrin Kendall biscuits, which soldiers ate during the Civil War.

: : 2. Short for Aux Cayes, a Haitian port that American sailors praised for its rum.

: : 3. Old Keokuk, a Native American tribal chief who was said to have signed treaties with his initials.

: : 4. OK stands for "all correct" or the illiterate phrase "Orl Korrect."

: : 5. U.S. President Martin Van Buren's nickname "Old Kinderhook" -- OK for short. He was a native of Kinderhook, N.Y.

: : 6. Choctaw word "okeh," (or "hoke") meaning "indeed" (or "It is so.")

: : 7. Scottish "auch aye", meaning "ah yes." (Or "och aye," meaning "okay.")

: : 8. From the French maritime phrase "au quai" meaning "at dock", and therefore at last safe from the ravages of the open sea.

: : 9. '0 killed' - the report of the night's death toll during the First World War.

: : 10. All clear after the shoot-out at O.K. Corral.

: : 11. Instruments calibrated at an Observatory at Kew had, affixed to them, a stamp, or impression, to authenticate that calibration. This stamp was O K - Observatory Kew.



: : New origins from Mr. Rawson's book:

: : 12. The abbreviation is for Oberst Kommandant, German for "Colonel in Command," used by either -- take your pick -- a General Schliessen or Baron von Steuben when initialing letters and orders during the American Revolution.

: : 13. It comes from the name of a freight agent, Obadiah Kelly, whose initials were widely disseminated on bills of lading.

: : 14. The abbreviation is for Open Key, popularized by telegraphers in the 1860s.

: : 15. It comes from the names of Lords Onslow and Kilbracken, who initialed bills after they were read and approved in England's House of Lords.

: : 16. From a misreading of "Order Recorded" on official documents.

: : 17. Or from Finnish "oikea," correct.

: : 18. From the Greek "olla," all, plus "Kalla," good.



: : Professor Allen Walker Read of Columbia University, "finally unveiled its (O.K.'s) origins in a series of magisterial articles in 'American Speech' in 1963 and 1964.What Professor Read discovered was that the abbreviation arose in a humorous manner at a time when Americans were indulging in a great deal of wordplay, including abbreviations, acronyms, puns and intentional mispronunciations and misspellings. The earliest example of O.K. that he unearthed (and it is so far still the oldest known specimen) is from the Boston 'Morning Post' of March 23, 1839. It appears in connection with a note by the paper's editor, Charles Gordon Greene, about a visit to New York of some members of the local Anti-Bell-Ringing Society. (The A.B.R.S., as it was usually known, was itself something of a joke, having been formed the previous year to oppose -- its name to the contrary -- an ordinance of the Boston Common Council against ringing dinner bells.) In an aside, Mr. Greene suggested that if the Bostonians were to return home via Providence, they might be greeted by one of his rivals, the editor of that city's 'Journal,' who 'would have the 'contribution box,' et ceteras, o.k. -- all correct -- and cause the corks to fly, like sparks, upward.'.Thus, it appears that O.K. was invented, possibly by Greene, as an abbreviation of the jocular 'Oll' or perhaps 'Orl korrect,' meaning "All right.' This explanation would seem farfetched, except for Read's finding that it dovetails with such coinages of the period as O.W. for 'All Right,' as though spelled 'Oll Wright' (this appeared in the Boston 'Morning Post' in 1838, the year before O.K.'s debut); K.G. for 'No Good'; and K.Y. for 'No Yuse.'."

Answer 19

It actually was created by Ned Flanders and OK is short for :

Okily Dokily. So now you know...

Answer 20

Okay

Answer 21

all correct



or modern version



all cool ;P



as C you read as K :P

Answer 22

There are many...take your pick at



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Okay

Answer 23

okey

Answer 24

okay

Answer 25

There are several theories about the origins of this word, some of them apocryphal and none of them conclusive, although the suggested origin as an initialism of oll korrect has relatively widespread support. Whatever its origin, the word spread around the world, the "okay" spelling of it first appearing in British writing in the 1860s. Spelled out in full in the 20th century, 'okay' has come to be in everyday use among English speakers, and borrowed by non-English speakers. Occasionally a humorous form okee dokee (or okey dokey) is used, as well as A-ok.



Choctaw Language

In the Choctaw language, there is a word "okeh" with the same meaning and pronunciation as American usage; Woodrow Wilson, among others, used this spelling to emphasize the Native American origins of the word. The Choctaw language was well known as a lingua franca of the frontiersmen of the early 19th Century, including eventual American Presidents Andrew Jackson and William Henry Harrison.



[edit]

"Oll Korrekt"

Allen Walker Read wrote six articles in the journal American Speech in 1963 and 1964 on the origins of the word. He dismissed the Choctaw origins as mythic folklore, emphasizing the possibility that "OK" arose as a cute abbreviation.



He believed the word to be short for any of several different spellings of "all correct", including "Oll Korrect", "Orl Korrect", and "Ole Kurreck". There was a fad in the 1830s and 1840s involving the intentional misspelling of common phrases, and referring to them by the resulting initials. These may have been influenced by the Low German phrase "Oll klor", which would have been spoken by emigrants from Northern Germany. The fad included many other briefly popular abbreviations such as OW, "oll wright" (all right) and KY, "know yuse" (no use), none of which has survived. The first recorded use of "OK" in this sense was in the Boston Morning Post on March 23, 1839, in the following passage (mostly probably written by editor Charles Gordon Greene):



The above is from the Providence Journal, the editor of which is a little too quick on the trigger, on this occasion. We said not a word about our deputation passing "through the city" of Providence.—We said our brethren were going to New York in the Richmond, and they did go, as per Post of Thursday. The "Chairman of the Committee on Charity Lecture Bells", is one of the deputation, and perhaps if he should return to Boston, via Providence, he of the Journal, and his train-band, would have his "contribution box," et ceteras, o.k.—all correct—and cause the corks to fly, like sparks, upward.

Read discounts evidence of earlier popular origins of the word; for instance, a Boston businessman used it in a daily journal in 1815, but Read argued in context it does not seem to be used in the sense of "okay, good".



Some have claimed U.S. President Andrew Jackson invented OK as an abbreviation of "Oll Korrect"; it is possible that Jackson used the term, since it was in currency towards the end of his life. Jackson may also have known the similar Choctaw word (see above).



[edit]

Greek Language

"O.K." is the abbreviation (spelled correctly) of the Greek expression, Ola Kala (Ολα Καλά, ΟΚ) It is a standard expression in Greece that simply means: "Everything's fine". Some teachers still use it to mark good school papers.



The abbreviation "OK" was informally used to communicate the "All's well!" (with light or other means) with shore or other ships . Also, for the Captain of a ship, hearing the Ola Kala was a quick way to take stock of a situation. OK did not however signify acquiescence to a command, as in: -"Do this!" -"OK!" The expression En Taxe, meaning "in order" would have been used in that case.



OK was also marked on shipping crates after inspection to signify that everything in them was all right. It is possible that port communities worldwide came in contact with "O.K." thusly. Throughout history, the Greek presence on the seas has been disproportionately large compared to the size of the country. The current (2006) Greek merchant fleet, for example, is larger than both US and Japanese fleets combined.



[edit]

African Origins

Another plausible etymology for "okay" is the suggestion that the expression may have entered North America along with African slaves many of whom arrived speaking one or more of several west African languages in which [oke] ("okay" or something close to it) was already part of the vocabulary, with a semantic scope quite close to that of "okay" in contemporary English. "Waw-kay" is an exclamation in both Bantu and Wolof dialects, "kay" being a word meaning "yes," and "waw" an emphatic; "waw-kay" is an emphatic "yes." It is observed that of all the things a newly arrived slave might be expected to utter in the presence of their English-speaking master, the single most frequent would surely be an emphatic yes. Lending credence to the African theory is the fact that a Bantu or Wolof origin is ascribed, with little or no controversy, to such common English words as "jive" ("jev") and "banana," among others. Although "okay" may have found its way into English from an African source, the similarity of the Choctaw form could have helped to solidify its use among at least some English speakers. As in the Choctaw origin theory, in this view the word "okay" was already in significant spoken use, though rarely written, when it began to acquire the several competing backronyms ("Old Kinderhook," "Oll Korrect," etc.) that have survived in print.



[edit]

Occitan language

The hallmark of the Occitan language is oc, the medieval Occitan word for yes, as opposed to oïl, the ancestor of the modern French oui, from the langue d'oïl of Northern France.



Vulgar Latin developed different methods of signifying assent: "hoc ille" and "hoc", which became the langue d'oil and langue d'oc (or Occitan language), respectively. The subsequent development of "oïl" into "oui" can be seen in modern French, and "hoc ille" may have evolved into OK.



[edit]

All of the above

It also might be that many or all the sources above influenced the English usage of the word.



[edit]

Legendary origins

[edit]

Initials

Since the term bears resemblance to a person's initials, many proposals have been made as to who "O.K." was, and why their name would become synonymous with acceptability.



One story says it comes from a railroad freight agent, Obadiah Kelly, who initialed bills of lading, or an Indian chief Old Keokuk who wrote his initials on treaties. Another story is that it comes from boxes of Orrins-Kendall crackers which were popular with Union troops during the US Civil War. Some say the term comes from a German businessman Otto Kaiser who put his initials on goods he had inspected. A related version ascribes it to a worker named Otto Kruger or Oskar Krause at a Ford plant in Michigan, who would inspect each car coming off the assembly line and chalk his initials on the front windshield if it was "OK".



[edit]

Martin Van Buren

According to the History Channel documentary, "Tune In", O.K. came from the 8th President of the United States, Martin Van Buren. Whenever Martin would sign off on something, he used the initials of his nickname "Old Kinderhook". Martin Van Buren was born in Kinderhook, NY and thus whenever he would approve of something - he would sign off, O.K.



[edit]

Andrew Jackson

An alleged meaning found in the popular game, Trivial Pursuit, says Andrew Jackson, one of the founders of the Democratic Party, and the seventh President of the United States, when asked about his usage of the two-letter acronym on bills, responded that OK stood for "oll korrect," a phonetic misspelling of "all correct." The likelihood of this story is supported by the fact that Andrew Jackson had a reputation as a good soldier and frontiersman, but not as of a scholar.



[edit]

French Fisherman Origins

Another possible origin for the term "OK" comes from French fishermen, sometimes said to be based in New Orleans. When the fishermen came back from their trips and were approaching the harbour, when asked by the harbourmaster where to tie up their boats, the captain would shout "au quai", meaning "to the quay". Later, when asked how their trip went, in the local taverns etc., they would simply reply "au quai", which would indicate that their ship had been tied up to the quay to unload a lot of fish. The phrase "au quai" became synonymous with success and integrated local slang.



[edit]

Fourteenth Century Oak Wood?

The term OK has also been used in an English will and testament from 1565. It is possible that this usage originates from "oak" - the tree from which ships were constructed in the British Navy. The actor David Garrick (1717-1779) wrote the Royal Navy's song "Heart of Oak", a patriotic song celebrating naval victories of the Seven Years' War (1756-1763). In Britain oak wood is a symbol of solid dependable construction. Thus it is possible to see how establishing the reliability of the vessel might involve asking if it was "oak-a?" In 2000 the First Sea Lord, Admiral Sir Michael Boyce said, in the Royal Navy's "Navy News": "It is no exaggeration to say that the reputation of the Royal Navy is founded on British oak."



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Typesetters, Harvests, the Finns, the Scots or the French?

The term OK was also used by typesetters and people working in the publishing business. A manuscript that didn't need any changes or corrections would be marked "O.K." for Ohne Korrektur (German for "No changes"). Another story is that it comes from the British English word hoacky (the last load of the harvest). Or the Finnish word Oikein (that's right). Or the Scottish expression och aye. Or the French aux Cayes or au quai.



[edit]

0 Killed

Another version is that the term was used by U.S. military during the U.S. civil war to state that there were zero casualties or zero killed ("0K"), hence 0.K., at a particular battle site.