where did the term "ok" come from?

Answer 1

When you see the same questions over and over, it's refreshing to see an answer like "neverdugdisco"s

okidokius just has to be right!

I hope he answers the "origin of the f-word" question next time it comes around.

Good Job!

Answer 2

Online Etymology Dictionary

OK
1839, only survivor of a slang fad in Boston and New York c.1838-9 for abbreviations of common phrases with deliberate, jocular misspellings (cf. K.G. for "no go," as if spelled "know go"); in this case, "oll korrect."

Further popularized by use as an election slogan by the O.K. Club, New York boosters of Democratic president Martin Van Buren's 1840 re-election bid, in allusion to his nickname Old Kinderhook, from his birth in the N.Y. village of Kinderhook.

Van Buren lost, the word stuck, in part because it filled a need for a quick way to write an approval on a document, bill, etc.

The noun is first attested 1841; the verb 1888. Spelled out as okeh, 1919, by Woodrow Wilson, on assumption that it represented Choctaw okeh "it is so" (a theory which lacks historical documentation); this was ousted quickly by okay after the appearance of that form in 1929. Okey-doke is student slang first attested 1932.

Answer 3

The first printed examples of O.K. can be found in the Boston newspapers of 1839 as part of a broader fad of forming and employing acronyms and initialisms, 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.

In a second phase, O.K. was boosted by the 1840 presidential election, and thus marked to outlast the acronym fad from which it came. Democratic supporters of candidate Martin Van Buren equated "Oll Korrect" with "Old Kinderhook", which was a nickname for Van Buren, a native of Kinderhook, NY. 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.

Answer 4

Oklahoma.

Answer 5

I heard it stood for 0 Killed, so they abbreviated it to ok, during one of those wars a long time ago.

Answer 6

You should have asked who.I read that this was used by President Lincoln to say "all right then".O.K is actually 'all correct.(oll korrect)

Answer 7

Its from the latin for "okidokius"

Answer 8

it came from oklahoma

Answer 9

um, the word "okay"...