Quote:
Originally Posted by VydorScope
Actually it might be. All though the history of the work is not certain, one contender is that it is short for "all correct" which was spelled as "Oll Korrect" or even "Ole Kurreck" by many people in the mid-1800's who were not exactly as literate as general population is today.
Whether or not that history is correct is unknown. There are several other contenders such as a political campaign (OK was initials of the guy running) and Choctaw (Native American tribe) word (okeh). So in short, no one knows
So that is why O.K. can be okay  |
I'm not picking on you, VydorScope. I promise.
It surprises me sometimes that folks truly don't know where the acronym OK comes from, and how it came to be used. Yes, it goes back to the 1800's.
Our 8th President, Martin Van Buren, used to be nicknamed Old Kinderhead, (he was born in a town called Kinderhook) and he used it in his campaigns for election. Sometime in 1840 - forgive me for not remembering which law it was, it's been awhile since I studied history in college (graduated in 1993) but I do know that he signed a bill into law with his nickname initials... OK. People back then would say the law has been OK'd, and thus the saying was born.
All of the speculative history of the acronym and guesswork over the last few centuries was done by those who didn't know better, and wrote of their theory enough to be mistaken for possible facts.
If you delve into a college level history book on Martin Van Buren, you'll find it there, but not as speculation. That President was a hoot, and he looked like a crazy guy as it was. ^_^
On Edit: Forgot to add that 'Okay' was used when writing an article that would include Oklahoma or any of its cities in the body of text, so folks wouldn't confuse the two and consider it a typo. Both OK and Okay are acceptable.