OK

[Jemisa]

We all say it don't we? probably several times a day and hundreds in a lifetime but where did those letters OK come from? are they short for something? Is it short for some Latin phrase?
Anyone know?

jem

[MarkRae]

No-one knows for sure...

Apocryphally, it was how Abraham Lincoln used to designated approval of official documents. He was, essentially, illiterate (imagine that - a think US president!) and thought that the letters "OK" were initials for "all correct".

Others say that it was something that Martin van Buren used to say to refer to himself in his presidential campaign. He was from Kinderhook and his supporters were known as "Old Kinderhooks"...

[Jemisa]

Blimey! MarkRae you turn up in the most unusual places.
Thanks for that.
jem.

[Old_Geezer]

Interesting, I heard the same tale attributed to a US dock worker. I guess the origin is lost in the mists of time.

[Mick-Talbot]

Wouldn't O.K have started life out as okay?

[Old_Geezer]

Vice versa I believe.

[MarkRae]

> Wouldn't O.K have started life out as okay?

How?

[Mick-Talbot]

Because most things get abbreviated Mark.

remember this is guesswork, I don't believe your explanation to be correct.

[boxtops]

I understood that it was a dock worker loading cotton in the States - and yes it is an abbreviation but that he couldn't spell and OK stands for ORL KORREKT, this is borne out as one origin in this explanation http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/page/190

[Zeuhl]

There's the Ola Kala explanation which is Greek for "everything's good" or "all good"

The Oll Korrect explanation would work better if the abbreviation A.C. was already used to mean something else so the jokey alternative was used to avoid confusion.
.

[boxtops]

Whichever it is, the abbreviation is OK, okay is just the way it's come to be written as a word.

[MarkRae]

> There's the Ola Kala explanation which is Greek for "everything's good" or "all good"

Some people claim that it's a corruption of "och aye"...

[Zeuhl]

All new Datsuns used to have a quality test sticker on them that said OK.

I think that was abbreviation for Orr Kollect.
.

[fredpuli47]

It's a bit of both Old Kinderhook and Orl Korrect.There was a fad for jokey spellings. Orl Korrect for 'all correct' was one,abbreviated to OK. This fashion was current when' Old Kinderhook' himself, van Buren, was running for office. His supporters caught on to the punning coincidence of OK being both Old Kinderhook and Orl Korrect and applied it in their campaigning.

[dr b]

Abraham Lincoln, "essentially, illiterate"? Please. There are hundreds of documents in his own hand - letters, speeches, etc. - dating back to his days as a lawyer and legislator in the 1830s that show him to be quite literate.

Also, what does "(imagine that - a think US president!)" mean?

[Mick-Talbot]

..............I predict a riot ^

[fredpuli47]

dr b, the man who delivered the Gettsyburg address must have been essentially illiterate; it stands to reason, OK ? And. 'a think US president' could be a typo for 'thick US president' but only MarkRae knows for sure.

[boxtops]

LOL @ fredpuli for being brave, I noticed the typo when drb pointed it out, but thought someone else might get in first!

[dr b]

Ah. Well, if it's just a typo, no problem there. We all make them, after all. No point going on and on about it, or interrupting a thread just to point it out.

[jno]

Bill Bryson goes into this in his book on American English (a great read) called Made in America. His conclusion is: we don't know. All the above theories are possible (though I never heard the Lincoln one before, nor the suggestion that he was illiterate). Fredpuli is probably as close to korrect as you'll get.

[MarkRae]

Apologies for the typo, and thanks for pointing it out - you were absolutely right to do so.

Abraham Lincoln is one of those figures from (American) history whose icon vastly eclipses their person. He was born into an illiterate family and had less than two years of formal education. Yet he was a hugely powerful and charismatic speaker, and the Gettsyburg address is rightly feted as a masterpiece of rhetoric; but he was essentially illiterate. If he were alive today, he'd probably be considered as dyslexic. Not ignorant, not stupid - just illiterate. It's not the same thing...