Saturday, June 12, 2010

More than you ever cared to know about O.K. from reference.com

Word Origin & History

OK

1839, only survivor of a slang fad in Boston and New York c.1838-9 for abbreviations of common phrases with deliberate, jocular misspellings (cf. K.G. for "no go," as if spelled "know go"); in this case, "oll korrect." Further popularized by use as an election slogan by the O.K. Club, New York boosters of Democratic president Martin Van Buren's 1840 re-election bid, in allusion to his nickname Old Kinderhook, from his birth in the N.Y. village of Kinderhook. Van Buren lost, the word stuck, in part because it filled a need for a quick way to write an approval on a document, bill, etc. The noun is first attested 1841; the verb 1888. Spelled out as okeh, 1919, by Woodrow Wilson, on assumption that it represented Choctaw okeh"it is so" (a theory which lacks historical documentation); this was ousted quickly by okay after the appearance of that form in 1929.Okey-doke is student slang first attested 1932. Greek immigrants to America who returned home early 20c. having picked up U.S. speech mannerisms were known in Greece as okay-boys, among other things.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
Cite This Source

Yes, reference.com has begun to woo me with it's nifty little tidbits at the top of the screen (heck, I was going to stick with it, just because I like the thesaurus).  Here's an example, below, of how I found the above (click on it for a bigger/clear image):