{"id":14247,"date":"2024-07-06T20:12:20","date_gmt":"2024-07-06T20:12:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.historydefined.net\/?p=14247"},"modified":"2024-07-06T20:12:22","modified_gmt":"2024-07-06T20:12:22","slug":"history-of-ok","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.historydefined.net\/history-of-ok\/","title":{"rendered":"The strange and hilarious history of the word “OK”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Do you know what OK stands for? Its meanings and origins might surprise you. Let\u2019s talk about language evolution. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Technology has changed language at such a blistering pace that it\u2019s hard to keep up for those of us who are a little older. I was introduced to \u2018text abbreviations\u2019 like LOL and BRB (laugh out loud and be right back) when text messages started to take off in the late 90s and early 2000s. This shortening of phrases was all the rage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Later, when smartphones hit the scene, a new form of shortened communication appeared: the emoticon, and after that, the emoji. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Long before that, though, abbreviations were being used not just as shorthand, but as ways to express humor. OK would start as part of a fad, but end up being one of the most used words in the world. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Who Invented the Word OK?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Journalist Charles Gordon Greene was responsible for the first confirmed use of the word OK in the March 23, 1839 issue of the Boston Morning Post.<\/em><\/strong>It was found in a humorous article about their rival paper, the Providence Journal.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are a few theories about the origins of OK, and some of them make perfect sense. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

One such theory is that OK stems from the Scottish phrase of agreement, \u201coch aye\u201d. <\/em>After all, OK also conveys agreement or acquiescence, and both och aye<\/em> and OK sound similar. Surely that\u2019s the most sensical answer, right? Well, it might be sensical, but it\u2019s wrong. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The next theory is that OK comes from the Choctaw word \u201cokeh\u201d, <\/em>which translates to \u201cit is so\u201d. Again, both words sound phonetically similar, and they both convey similar ideas. This explanation also makes sense! But it\u2019s still wrong. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When OK was used in the Boston Morning Post <\/em>article<\/a>, it was an abbreviation of \u201cOll Korrect\u201d, or \u201cOle Kurreck\u201d, a humorous misspelling of \u201cAll Correct\u201d. This misspelling and subsequent abbreviation was quite popular, and readers of the time found it hilarious.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But why was spelling something wrong so funny? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Boston Abbreviation Fad <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Humor is relative, which is why things found comical in the 1800s wouldn\u2019t earn even a LOL from someone today. The humor of that time might be lost on us, but it\u2019s imperative to understand why OK entered the English language. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

To those in Boston in 1838, misspellings were seen as a humorous way to make fun of the poor or less educated. A number of phrases would be misspelled on purpose in newspapers and other forms of written media just to get a laugh, and the most infamous of these misspellings is undoubtedly OK. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Boston didn\u2019t just love wrongly spelled words, they also adored abbreviations. We aren\u2019t sure where the misspelling \u201cOll Korrect\u201d was first used, but it stuck around long enough to be abbreviated into OK, and OK certainly had staying power. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For a time, OK was a Boston phenomenon, but it wouldn\u2019t be long until it reached the rest of the country. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Martin Van Buren: \u201cOld Kinderhook\u201d or \u201cOK\u201d<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The use of OK hadn\u2019t spread much beyond Boston by 1840, but that was about to change. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was an election year, and a man named Martin Van Buren was the Democratic presidential candidate. When running for office, every little detail needs to be taken into consideration\u2013even someone’s name!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 Literacy was not high in the United States at the time, and some democrats were worried that \u201cMartin Van Buren\u201d might be too much of a mouthful for voters, and too hard to remember. What Van Buren did have, though, was a prestigious nickname based on where he grew up. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Martin Van Buren hailed from Kinderhook, New York, and this combined with his age gained him the nickname \u201cOld Kinderhook\u201d. It was quickly decided that Old Kinderhook would be a better name for a campaign than Martin Van Buren\u2013after all, people were more likely to recognize city names even if they couldn\u2019t read well, and Old Kinderhook had a distinct patriotic air to it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So in response to this nickname, democrats began pushing Van Buren\u2019s new moniker. Signs would read \u201cVote for Old Kinderhook\u201d, eventually morphing into the shortened \u201cVote for OK\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even in 1840, Presidential campaigns were a huge deal, and the Vote for OK slogan spread far and wide. The opposing side even tried to use it to criticize Van Buren\u2019s predecessor, Andrew Jackson, who had difficulty spelling during his presidency and had used the abbreviation. If you recall from earlier in the article, making fun of someone for misspellings is a way to insinuate that they are illiterate. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

From there, OK entered people’s vernaculars across the county, but the abbreviation wasn\u2019t done yet\u2013OK was going to travel the globe. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

OK Goes International <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Fads from the United States have a tendency to make their way overseas once they become popular enough, and OK was no exception. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

With more and more people implementing OK into their daily speech or writing, uses of OK started to pop up in other countries. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A few of the languages that adopted the early usage of OK were:<\/p>\n\n\n\n