ChatterBank2 mins ago
OK
27 Answers
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
Anyone know?
jem
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From a letter by Lincoln written in 1858:
"When a man has reached the age that Mr. Widmer has, and has already been doing for himself, my judgment is, that he reads the books for himself without an instructor. That is precisely the way that I came into the law. Let Mr. Widmer read Blackstone's Commentaries, Chitty's Pleadings, Greenleaf's Evidence, Story's Equity, and Story's Equity Pleadings, get a license and go to the practice, and still keep reading. That is my judgment of the cheapest, quickest, and best way for Mr. Widmer to make a lawyer of himself."
Source: "Abraham Lincoln: His Speeches and Writings."
"When a man has reached the age that Mr. Widmer has, and has already been doing for himself, my judgment is, that he reads the books for himself without an instructor. That is precisely the way that I came into the law. Let Mr. Widmer read Blackstone's Commentaries, Chitty's Pleadings, Greenleaf's Evidence, Story's Equity, and Story's Equity Pleadings, get a license and go to the practice, and still keep reading. That is my judgment of the cheapest, quickest, and best way for Mr. Widmer to make a lawyer of himself."
Source: "Abraham Lincoln: His Speeches and Writings."
This from the OED
O.K. (______), a., n., and v. colloq. (orig. U.S.). Also OK, o.k., ok.
[App. f. the initial letters of oll (or orl) korrect, jocular alteration or colloq. pronunc. of _all correct': see A. W. Read in Amer. Speech XXXVIII (1963), XXXIX (1964), etc.
From the detailed evidence provided by A. W. Read it seems clear that O.K. first appeared as a jocular alteration of the initial letters of all correct (i.e. orl korrect) in 1839, and that in 1840 it was used as an election slogan for _Old Kinderhook' (see sense A b). Thence by stages it made its way into general use. Other suggestions, e.g. that O.K. represents the Choctaw oke _it is', or French au quai, or that it derives from a word in the West African language Wolof via slaves in the southern States of America, all lack any form of acceptable documentation.]
O.K. (______), a., n., and v. colloq. (orig. U.S.). Also OK, o.k., ok.
[App. f. the initial letters of oll (or orl) korrect, jocular alteration or colloq. pronunc. of _all correct': see A. W. Read in Amer. Speech XXXVIII (1963), XXXIX (1964), etc.
From the detailed evidence provided by A. W. Read it seems clear that O.K. first appeared as a jocular alteration of the initial letters of all correct (i.e. orl korrect) in 1839, and that in 1840 it was used as an election slogan for _Old Kinderhook' (see sense A b). Thence by stages it made its way into general use. Other suggestions, e.g. that O.K. represents the Choctaw oke _it is', or French au quai, or that it derives from a word in the West African language Wolof via slaves in the southern States of America, all lack any form of acceptable documentation.]
if MarkRae is saying Lincoln wasn't stupid, 'thick' seems an unusual word to demonstrate this. There are as others have pointed out well-written documents in his own hand; he seems to have read widely, and he spoke powerfully. If that is illiteracy, we should have more of it. The amount of time he spent at school has nothing to do with it; he was self-taught and seemingly all the better for it.
