Where does the term 'ok/okay' come from?

Question

My friend insists that it is from a man named Oliver Keel who used to praise work by signing his initials OK, but I'd love to prove him wrong so any good strong arguments would be appreciated.

Answer 1

Finally my pointless knowledge put to use. I just graduated with my MA in History. So this is just one of those pointless tid bits I picked up while studying about the Indians. In the Battle of New Orleans Pushmataha and his warriors were under Andrew Jackson. They were Choctaw. The Choctaw could not speak much english so they still used their own native words much of the time. Now as tradition has it, Andrew Jackson asked Pushmataha if the war was going well for the Choctaw against Britain, and Pushmataha said "OKEH." This was a Choctaw word for everything is fine. Thus, the word became embedded into our language as 'okay'. Simple as that. There are a few variations on the story, but they do not deviate far from this one. Hope that helps.

Answer 2

Originated in Boston and New York City around 1839 as part of a slang fad (reminiscent of Cockney rhyming slang and Russian padonki slang) where phrases were deliberately misspelt and then reduced to abbreviations. The word okay was the abbreviation OK for "oll korrect". OK is the only term of that era to have become a permanent part of the language.

Answer 3

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.

Answer 4

Nope.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Okay#Etymology:_.22Oll_Korrect.22_and_.22Old_Kinderhook.22

Answer 5

O = initial articulated sound for "all"
K = initial articulated sound for "correct"