Quote:
Originally Posted by Daniel A Roberts
Short of traveling back in time to 1992 to look up the bibliography in the college book labeled Advanced American History in our Constitutional Republic, not really. Apologies for growing up and getting an education during a time when a subjective and editable by anyone Internet wasn't available as facts and answers.
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The Internet has many good and bad aspects. One of its most interesting advantages is fast/searchable access to many source that even the very well educated with access to large libraries didn't once have.
One of the difficulties with word etymologies is that discovery of an early use doesn't automatically prove the writer was also the original source. Sometimes a writer is simply reciting word they have heard or seen elsewhere. To take the Van Buren example: it may have been that an "O.K." nickname and signature were considered cute (in vogue) because of preexisting use of OK (which seems like a very politician thing to do). But even if there had been preexisting use, it could be that the Van Buren adoption is what actually led to wider adoption ... or, if people back then paid as much attention to how politicians signed their declarations as they do now, perhaps it had nothing to do with it. So if you're hopping in a time-machine I suggest you need to back much further than 1992 to find convincing answers.