Yo folks, WE SAY it and type it countless times a day, but have you ever stopped to wonder what “OK” stands for? The word has a bizarre history.
OK stands for “oll korrect”, or “all correct”, Don't ask me Huh. The origin of the word is traced back to a Boston newspaper in 1839. Around this time, the editor used it as an efficient, trendy way of saying “oll korrect”, or “all correct”. It was part of a trend at the time for writers to playfully misspell and abbreviate their words just for the fun of it.
So how did “OK” survive for almost 200 years?
It was all thanks to the 1840 election campaign of Martin Van Buren, who served as the eighth president of the United States. Supporters of the leader formed a club that was affectionately named after his nickname — Old Kinderhook — which became the “OK Club”. Mr. Van Buren’s opponents seized on the trend too, using the term to promote political slogans like “out of Kash”, “out of karacter”, “orful katastrophe” and “orfully konfused”.
Basically, whether you supported or opposed the man, “OK” was constantly in your face. Observe:
OK: Standard term signifying you are on board with something. Variations include “all right”, “sounds good” and “that’s fine”.
Okay: The modernized American spelling of OK, which also enables its use as a verb: “
Oooookay: A passive-aggressive expression used to signify the imminent escalation of an argument. It’s also a perfectly adequate response when someone says something vaguely uncomfortable.
Okaaaay: Same as above, but may also signify accepting defeat in a said argument, depending on your inflection.
KK: A variation of OK used by tweens of the MySpace era, circa 2005. If you still use this, you now know why you’re still single.
K: You’re either in a hurry, or passive-aggressively expressing your disapproval in a way that conveys you will not tell the recipient why you are no longer speaking to them.
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