Where do word "okay" comes from?

Answer 1

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.

Answer 2

OK
Origin: 1839

Is it a word, a phrase, an abbreviation, an acronym? Do you spell it O.K., OK, o.k., or okay? Any way, it's OK. This most uncategorizable of Americanisms is categorically the most successful of all time. OK is "all correct."

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 3

once upon a time there is king who don`t know anything except alphabet in english
and there is a good writer , he shows his stories to the king and king pretends to read it
after he finishes reading the book he wants to write sth s for the writer but as he knows only the alphabet he writes an O and a K and the writer thinks that the king wants to say -ok :) -so since then ok means ok:)

Answer 4

I've heard it was a Native American misspelling of "All Correct" - as "Orl Korrect", which would be abbreviated to O.K.. It was something to do with inspecting soldiers on parade.

Answer 5

OK is said to be based on a mispronunciation of all correct [orl korect] back in those days their was no yahoo spell check

Answer 6

Maybe Occitan, an old language from the South of France, where Oc = yes.

Answer 7

it is abbreviation for words Okeydoky.
This was first used to mean the affirmative in Okinawa, when our troops would R&R there.

or maybe it was from the Musical, Oklahoma? hmmmm

Answer 8

Etymology: 19c: probably from American English oll korrect, a facetious spelling of all correct.

Answer 9

One day there was an "Oh" who met up with a "Mmkay" and they got married and had a child "Okay" and he lived happily ever after.

Answer 10

I heard that people used the O.K. code on report during the war, meaning « zero killed [0K] ».