OK, so today is the time to celebrate the birthday of the world's most-used word.
It was "born" in the late 1830s during an abbreviation craze in Boston, US, according to the research of the late etymologist Allen Walker Read. Boston newspaper editors enjoyed inventing abbreviations like "SP" for "small potatoes" and "OW" for "all right". Editors at the Boston Morning Post started to approve final drafts with “OK” or “oll korrect”, a deliberate misspelling, to replace “all correct”.
On March 23, 1839, OK made it into print. It was introduced to the world on the second page of the Boston Morning Post and appeared as "o.k. (all correct)".
TRIVIA:Oxford Dictionaries, on its website, rejects speculation that OK is derived from the Scottish expression “och aye,” the Greek “ola kala” (it’s good) or the French “aux Cayes,” which refers to a Haitian port famous for its rum.
Rather, it favors a theory— by Allan Metcalf — that it’s an abbreviation of “orl korrekt,” a derivative of “all correct” from the 1830s when jokey misspellings were all the rage, like Internet memes are today.
Allan Metcalf is an English professor in Illinois who is the world’s leading authority on the history and meaning of OK.
Metcalf said: "It’s distinctive, yet easily pronounced and very readily understood … It uses the vowel O, the vowel A and the consonant K—and those are found in almost all languages of the world,”
“So if you’re speaking with somebody who has a totally different language than you, chances are you can get by with gestures and OK in various tones of voice.”
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| March 23, 1839: OK made it into print on the second page of the Boston Morning Post |
Easily said and written, and also distinctive enough to be immediately recognized, it stood out from among the sea of abbreviations created at that time. Originating from the newsroom, OK caught on in the streets and went on to international fame. Now it even has its own hand gesture.
How are you going to celebrate the birthday? Anyway you do it, it's OK.--Source: Young Post