How did the word/initials/phrase "O.K." came to be ok?

Question

How was it alright?

Answer 1

I've heard all kinds of stories about how this came to be ok. One is that in the 19th century, one man was supposed to inspect items for the army. He was not very literate, though, and he marked them OK, for "Oll Korrect" (all correct).

Answer 2

From the Oxford English Dictionary:

Forms: . 18- O.K., o.k., OK, 19- ok. . 18- okay, 19- okeh, okey. [App. < the initial letters of oll (or orl) korrect, jocular alteration of ‘all correct’: see A. W. Read in Amer. Speech (1963) 38, (1964) 39, etc.

From the detailed evidence provided by A. W. Read it seems clear that O.K. first appeared in 1839 (an instance of a contemporary vogue for humorous abbreviations of this type), and that in 1840 it became greatly reinforced by association with the initialism O.K. n.1, O.K. int.2 (see discussion s.v.).

Other suggestions, e.g. that O.K. represents an alleged Choctaw word oke ‘it is’ (actually the affirmative verbal suffix -okii ‘indeed, contrary to your supposition’), or French au quai, or Scottish English och aye, or that it derives from a word in the West African language Wolof via slaves in the southern States of America, all lack any form of acceptable documentation.

Competing theories as to the origin of the expression have been in evidence almost since its first appearance; cf.:
1840 Lexington Intelligencer 9 Oct. 3/2 O.K. Perhaps no two letters have ever been made the initials of as many words as O.K... When first used they were said to mean Out of Kash, (cash;) more recently they have been made to stand for Oll Korrect, Oll Koming, Oll Konfirmed, &c. &c.

It is not clear whether the ok of the following quotation represents the same expression:
1815 W. RICHARDSON Diary 21 Feb., Arrived at Princeton, a handsome little village, 15 miles from N Brunswick, ok & at Trenton, where we dined.

Answer 3

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.

Answer 4

In January, 1815, tradition has it that Pushmataha and his warriors, while serving under Andrew Jackson at the Battle of New Orleans, gave a lasting contribution to the English Language. During the battle, Jackson is said to have asked Pushmataha if the fight against the British was going well for the Choctaw detachment. Pushmataha supposedly answered with a Choctaw word which meant that things were all right. Jackson liked the word and began using it himself. The word was OK. According to the Dictionary of Word Origins, the favored source for the symbol OK ". . seems to be the Choctaw word OKEH, it is so" (Shipley).

Answer 5

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.



Good reading at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Okay

Answer 6

Many dispute OK's origings, but one Professor says that OK stands for "oll korrect", and was abbreviated as was the style of humorists in the 1800s. The spelling of all correct is strange because many phrases in the newspapers were spelled crazily and then abbreviated in the 1830 and 40s like "KY, "know yuse," KG, "know go," and NS, "nuff said." Most phrases and abbreviations didn't catch on, but Ok was convenient and it did. Okay?

Answer 7

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.”
That was its original meaning, an in-your-face misspelling of the first letters of all and correct. In 1839, when we first come across it, O.K. was just one of many humorous abbreviations in the newspapers of Boston, like O.F.M. (our first men), S.P. (small potatoes), and R.T.B.S. (remains to be seen), and like these other abbreviations, O.K. was usually spelled with periods. The modern expert on OK, Columbia University professor Allen Walker Read, found the epidemic of abbreviations then spread to the newspapers of New York City, Philadelphia, and New Orleans, not to mention Chicago and the small town of Peru, Illinois. When the fad for abbreviations faded a few years later, only two of them, N.G. (no go, no good) and O.K., took permanent hold. But O.K. took off like a rocket.

Why? Because the following year, 1840, was a presidential election year, and Martin Van Buren, a.k.a. "Old Kinderhook" because of his birthplace in Kinderhook, New York, was up for reelection. His supporters, the Democrats, formed an O.K. Club in New York City that attained notoriety not only with torchlight parades but also by disrupting rallies of Van Buren's Whig opponent, William Henry Harrison. Although O.K. the politician lost the election, O.K. the expression doubled its strength. From that time on, America was O.K.

After these humorous and political beginnings, O.K. settled in to make itself indispensable, sometimes losing its periods in the process and becoming simply OK. OK was quickly recognized as a brief, distinctive, universally understood annotation to indicate approval of a document, and a brief, distinctive, universally understood spoken response to indicate understanding and acceptance of a request or order. Its brevity, simplicity, and distinctiveness have commended it to languages the world over. OK is America's most successful linguistic export.

Answer 8

i can't remember exactly but i somehting about someone's initials and he would give is approval on documents by signing everything with O.K. ?