Word History: 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.”

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 born 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.

Allen Walker Read conclusively documented the early history of the abbreviation O.K., now also spelled okay.

your usually on P&S 😛 first time i see you here

Place the link below into your browser for them.

http://search.yahoo.com/search?search=OK+origin&ei=UTF-8&fr=ks-ques&ico-yahoo-search-value=http%3A%2F%2Frds.yahoo.com%2F_ylt%3DAh73n1tH9293qEiOWpLF1J_CxQt.%2FSIG%3D11ieosm2n%2FEXP%3D1186136244%2F*-http%253A%2F%2Fsearch.yahoo.com%2Fsearch&ico-wikipedia-search-value=http%3A%2F%2Frds.yahoo.com%2F_ylt%3DAn2NZlKKh1uYvB6Ns2hG_J7CxQt.%2FSIG%3D121qvurir%2FEXP%3D1186136244%2F*-http%253A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FSpecial%253aSearch&p=OK+origin