what does 'OK' stands for?

Question

never knew what it stood for and everybody uses that word. Anyone got a clue?

Answer 1

The ancient englishman of the US where primarily from poorly backgrounds and lacked a proper education so everyone spelled according to sound.

One day I assume someone just decided let's make our language written and basic so everyone understands it. Still to this day British English and US English has different spellings of some words. Examples are most of our "z" are "s" over there. "f" and "ph" sometimes you'll even see "uu" instead of "w"

OK=oll korrect (all correct), mispelled by old English speakers

Here's an insert from wikipedia:
Okay is a term of approval or assent, often written as OK, O.K., ok, okay, okee, or more informally as simply kay, k or kk. Sometimes used with other words, as in "okey, dokey". When used to describe the quality of a thing, it denotes acceptability. However, its usage can also be strongly approving; as with most slang, its usage is determined by context. It could be one of the most widely used words on Earth, since it has spread from English to many other languages.

The historical record shows that "O.K." appeared as an abbreviation for oll korrect (a conscious misspelling of "all correct") in Boston newspapers in 1839, and was reinterpreted as "Old Kinderhook" in the 1840 United States presidential election. Because it is a recent word borne of word play, and because it is so widely used, "O.K." has also invited many folk etymologies. These competing theories are not supported by the historical written record, except in that folk and joke etymologies influenced the true history of the word. Since the 19th century, the word has 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.

According to languagemonitor.com, "O.K." is the Most Frequently Spoken Word on the Planet.[1]

Etymology: "Oll Korrect" and "Old Kinderhook"
Allen Walker Read conclusively documented the early history of the abbreviation "O.K.", now also spelled "okay", in a series of six articles in the journal American Speech in 1963 and 1964. He tracked the spread and evolution of the word in American newspapers and other written documents, and later its spread to the rest of the world. He also documented controversy surrounding "O.K." and the history of its folk etymologies, both of which are intertwined with the history of the word itself.

The form "O.K." first became popular in Boston newspapers in 1839 as part of a broader fad of forming and employing acronyms, many of them barbarous. Other examples at the time included "G.T.T." for "gone to Texas" and "K.Y." for "know yuse". The general fad may have existed in spoken or informal written American English for a decade or more before its appearance in newspapers. "O.K." was intended as a misspelling of "all correct"; in the first few years it was often published with this gloss. (Note that gloss indicates the spread of a new word.) The gloss was sometimes varied with degraded spelling such as "Oll Korrect" or even "Ole Kurreck". Deliberate word play was associated with the acronym fad and was a yet broader contemporary American fad. In this first phase, "O.K." was spread with the acronym fad from Boston to other American cities.

The first recorded appearance in the first phase 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.
In a second phase, "O.K." was selected and boosted by the 1840 presidential election. Democratic supporters of candidate Martin Van Buren equated "Oll Korrect" with "Old Kinderhook", which was a nickname for van Buren. In response, Whig opponents attributed "O.K.", in the sense of "Oll Korrect", to Andrew Jackson's bad spelling. Thus, the election popularized both "O.K." and a folk etymology that the acronym came from Andrew Jackson.

"O.K." spread across the United States over the next two decades, and probably as far as Jamaica by 1848. The Civil War cemented its use, as much by confirming to American speakers that it was widely understood as by spreading it yet further. In the second half of the 19th century it spread to England and many other countries. In England it was first viewed as an improper Americanism, but it became widely accepted between the first and second World Wars.


[edit] Folk etymologies
The wordplay origin of "O.K." invited folk etymology and joke etymology from the beginning. Eventually there appeared folk etymologies that were not connected with either word play or the 1840 Presidential election. In particular, in 1859, a Tennessee historian named Albigence Waldo Putnam misread an appearance of "O.R." in a 1790 missive by Andrew Jackson as "O.K.". This made Andrew Jackson the dominant theory of the origin of "O.K." until it was disproven by Woodford Heflin in 1941 using photographic analysis.

President Woodrow Wilson attributed "OK" to the Choctaw word "okeh", which means "it is so". (This may be slightly different from the main sense of "O.K." as "acceptable", or "I agree".) Wilson accepted the Jackson etymology and supposed that Jackson took the word from Choctaw. But this etymology, like all etymologies other than the one found by Read, lacks a clear historical record.

It has been suggested that in World War II the term "zero killed" was used when a unit suffered no casualties in combat, and that this was then shortened to "0K". This proposed etymology is grossly anachronistic, since by this time the term had been widely used for a full century. The same theory has also been applied to the Civil War, but this is also anachronistic.

There are also many proposed international etymologies of "O.K.", but they lack supporting written evidence just as the American folk etymologies do.

In Greek, "O.K." is a correctly-spelled abbreviation for the expression, Ola Kala (Ολα Καλά, ΟΚ), which has the same meaning as the American English "okay". It is possible that Greek sailors used Ola Kala in American ports.

"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. Some other English words such as "jive" ("jev") and "banana" have uncontested Bantu or Wolof origins.

The word of assention in Occitan is oc (from Latin hoc), as opposed to oïl (< Lat. "hoc ille), the ancestor of the modern French oui, from the langue d'oïl of Northern France. However, before the word "okay" appeared in American English, the final consonant in Occitan oc had become silent, leading to the pronunciation [o:].

French fishermen, including those based in New Orleans, might sometimes have used the phrase "au quai", literally "to the quay", to mean that a fishing trip was successful (or went okay) and therefore there were fish to unload at the quay.

The term OK is also used by typesetters and people working in publishing. A manuscript that did not need any changes or corrections would be marked "O.K." for Ohne Korrektur (German for "no changes"). Other stories are that it comes from the British English word hoacky (the last load of the harvest), the Finnish word oikein ("that's right"), the Scottish expression och aye ("oh yes"), or the French aux Cayes or au quai.


[edit] Grammatical functions
In English okay may be used as a verb, noun, adjective, adverb, and interjection.

Levin & Gray (1983) identify what they term a lecturer's OK that is used in academic settings by both teachers and students. This type of okay is preceded by a pause, accompanied by breaking eye-contact with the listening audience, and is uttered with a "half" voice (i.e. a voice lower in loudness, louder than a whisper but softer than a normal speaking voice).


[edit] Spelling style
Whether this word is printed as OK, okay, or O.K. is a matter normally resolved in the style manual for the publication involved. Common style guides: Chicago, New York Times, etc., provide no consensus nor do dictionaries. The Associated Press Stylebook recommends the spellings "OK, Ok’d OK’ing, OKs" and states "do not use [the spelling] okay."

More recently, text messagers (email, chat rooms, instant messaging, mobile phone messaging (Short message service), etc.) use "k" or even "kk", as a quickly-typed, informal variation of the spelling, though some claim this variation has been in use since at least the BBS days of the early 1990s.


[edit] Usage
From the Oxford English Dictionary:

Okay (also OK) / adj, adv (informal) all right; satisfactory or satisfactorily
Eg. I hope the children are okay. (I hope the children are all right.)
I think I did OK in the exam. (I think I did well, but not too well, on the exam.)
He is OK. ( He is good )
Okay is sometimes used merely to acknowledge a question without giving an affirmation. This response usually implies a rejection. For example: "You're going to give the money back that you stole, right?" "Okay."


[edit] See also
OK Computer
OK Corral
OK Go
OK Soda
OK gesture

[edit] References
Beath, Paul R. (1946). 'O.K.' in radio sign language. American Speech, 21 (3), 235.
Cassidy, Frederic G. (1981). OK — is it African?. American Speech, 58 (4), 269-273.
Dalby, David. (1971, January 8). O.K., A.O.K. and O KE. New York Times, pp. L-31/4-6.
Degges, Mary. (1975). The etymology of OK again. American Speech, 50 (3/4), 334-335.
Eubanks, Ralph T. (1960). The basic derivation of 'O.K.' American Speech, 35 (3), 188-192.
Greco, Frank A. (1975). The etymology of OK again. American Speech, 50 (3/4), 333-334.
Heflin, Woodford A. (1941). 'O.K.,' but what do we know about it?. American Speech, 16 (2), 87-95.
Heflin, Woodford A. (1962). 'O.K.' and its incorrect etymology. American Speech, 37 (4), 243-248.
Levin, Harry; & Gray, Deborah. (1983). The Lecturer's OK. American Speech, 58 (3), 195-200.
Matthews, Albert. (1941). A note on 'O.K.'. American Speech, 16 (4), 256-259.
Mencken, H. L. (1936). The American language (4th ed., pp. 206-207). New York: Knopf.
Mencken, H. L. (1942). 'O.K.,' 1840. American Speech, 17 (2), 126-127.
Mencken, H. L. (1945). The American language: Supplement I (pp. 269-279). New York: Knopf.
Mencken, H. L. (1949, October 1). The life and times of O.K. New Yorker, pp. 57-61.
McMillan, James B. (1942). 'O.K.,' a comment. American Speech, 17 (2), 127.
Pound, Louise. (1942). Some folk-locutions. American Speech, 17 (4), 247-250.
Pound, Louise. (1951). Two queries: Usages of O.K. American Speech, 26 (3), 223.
Pyles, Thomas. (1952). 'Choctaw' okeh again: A note. American Speech, 27 (2), 157-158.
Read, Allen W. (1941, July 19). The evidence on O.K.. Saturday Review of Literaure, pp. 3-4, 10-11.
Read, Allen W. (1963). The first stage in the history of "O.K.". American Speech, 38 (1), 5-27.
Read, Allen W. (1963). The second stage in the history of "O.K.". American Speech, 38 (2), 83-102.
Read, Allen W. (1963). Could Andrew Jackson spell?. American Speech, 38 (3), 188-195.
Read, Allen W. (1964). The folklore of "O.K.". American Speech, 39 (1), 5-25.
Read, Allen W. (1964). Later stages in the history of "O.K.". American Speech, 39 (2), 83-101.
Read, Allen W. (1964). Successive revisions in the explanation of "O.K.". American Speech, 39 (4), 243-267.
Rife, J. M. (1966). The early spread of "O.K." to Greek schools. American Speech, 41 (3), 238.
Wait, William B. (1941). Richardson's 'O.K.' of 1815. American Speech, 16 (2), 85-86, 136.
Walser, Richard. (1965). A Boston "O.K." poem in 1840. American Speech, 40 (2), 120-126.
Weber, Robert. (1942). A Greek O.K. American Speech, 17 (2), 127-128.
Webster's Dictionary of English Usage, Merriam-Webster, 1989.

[edit] External links
The Choctaw Expression Okeh and the Americanism Okay
The OK Democratic Club, circa 1840
A Straight Dope column on the origin
Origin of the "OK Button"
Origin of the Word OK
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Okay"
Category: Slang

Answer 2

From the "Morris Dictionary of Word and Phrase Origins" (Second Edition, HarperCollins, 1977) by William and Mary Morris: Mr. and Mrs. Morris say that O.K./okay "has probably been more discussed than any other item in the American language." They list several theories including that US President Woodrow Wilson thought Okey was a Choctaw Indian. Other theories: O.K. was an abbreviation for Old Kinderhook Club, a political group supporting James Van Buren (The Kinderhook Fox) for president in 1840; stood for 'Aux Cayes," a Haiti port known for superior rum; for the illiterate phrase "Orl Korrect," and so forth. "Okey-doke. As noted above, O.K. first appeared in print some time before 1840. It has now achieved 'colloquial' status in reference books, meaning that it is perfectly permissible in conversation and informal writing. Okey-doke and is variant okey-dokey, however, did not make their debuts in print until about 1930. Each is still considered slang."

I'd all along, thought it was a misspell of Orl Korrect (All Correct).

Answer 3

Some say that the word ok is the abbreviation of the sentence "OLA KALA", which in greek means "everything's fine", and that in it's turn, it is said that it came from when in some world war, if the war ships were ok, without anything harmful to the opposite country i guess, the put a label on it that said "ok".
That's just the meaning we give to "OK" here in greece, but it can easily also be just an myth.

Answer 4

What Does Ok Stand For

Answer 5

This Site Might Help You.

RE:
what does 'OK' stands for?
never knew what it stood for and everybody uses that word. Anyone got a clue?

Answer 6

O.K. was originated from a presidential campain or something of the like in the 18th century. After the campain, people just started to use the motto OK 'cause it sounded cool.

Answer 7

In 1838, a newspaper in Boston had some fun with misspelling abbreviations. OK was mean to be "all correct"

The phrase was popularized in the 1840 US presidential elections when Martin Van Buren, otherwise known as "Old Kinderhook," after his birthplace, ran for reelection. This became his presidential slogan and even though he lost, OK was pretty much cemented.

Answer 8

It's American and stands for OLL KORRECT which is an alteration of ALL CORRECT.

Answer 9

somebody misspelled all correct and wrote ol korekt ( I can't remember who) and shorter for that is O.K.
this is also from some junior book or magazine, but it was too long ago to remember all the details (pity).

Answer 10

it means all correct - I found the following definition in the Oxford Concise English Dictionary:-

ORIGIN probably an abbreviation of orl korrect, humorous form of all correct, popularised as a slogan during President Van Buren’s re-election campaign of 1840 in the US; his nickname Old Kinderhook (derived from his birthplace) provided the initials.

To add to my above earlier response, there are more thoughts on the origins here: http://www.askoxford.com/asktheexperts/faq/aboutwordorigins/ok?view=uk

Answer 11

it's short for okay.

but originates from a mistake in a newspaper back in 1839 and was originally short for oll korrect.

search on wikipedia for the word ok.