Did OK really begin as a joke?
OK may be the world’s most widely recognised English expression, yet its likely origin is surprisingly silly. It began amid a nineteenth-century American fashion for jokey abbreviations and deliberately bad spelling.
From “oll korrect” to O.K.
In Boston newspapers during the 1830s, writers amused themselves by shortening misspelled phrases. All correct was jokingly written as oll korrect and then reduced to O.K. The joke might have disappeared quickly, but the abbreviation received an enormous boost during the 1840 United States presidential campaign.
Why did it survive?
Supporters of President Martin Van Buren called him “Old Kinderhook”, after his birthplace, and formed O.K. clubs. The political slogan helped spread an abbreviation that already existed. Today, OK works as an adjective, adverb, noun and verb. It also travels remarkably well between languages.
Nederlandse uitleg
In het Nederlands: OK ontstond waarschijnlijk als afkorting van de expres fout gespelde woorden “oll korrect”. Een verkiezingscampagne hielp de afkorting vervolgens bekend te maken.
Try it yourself
Notice how flexible it is: an OK result, She did OK, Give me the OK, and I OK’d the plan.
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Source: Merriam-Webster. Featured photograph by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash.