How did “OK" become the indispensable expression it is today?
According to historians, the term originated from an 1839 abbreviation for “all correct,” invented by Charles Gordon Greene in the Boston Morning Post.
Greene wrote:
The “Chairman of the Committee on Charity Lecture Bells," is one of the deputation, and perhaps if he should return to Boston, via Providence, he of the Journal, and his train-band, would have his “contribution box," et ceteras, o.k.—all correct—and cause the corks to fly, like sparks, upward.
In the movie Silver Linings Playbook, Jennifer Lawrence’s character claims the word originated during the election of 1840. In actuality, it was purely a coincidence that Martin Van Buren’s hometown of Old Kinderhook could be abbreviated to “OK." During this time, Van Buren’s supporters formed the “OK Club," which helped increase OK’s popularity. The term was recycled into negative election slogans from Van Buren’s opponents, including “out of kash," “out of karacter," and “orful katastrophe." "OK" had turned into the "binders full of women" of the 1840s.
The reason “OK" didn’t fall by the wayside after the election of 1840 was a happy coincidence: it came into use right when the telegraph was invented. By the time the 1870s rolled around, “OK" had turned into a standard abbreviation telegraph operators used when acknowledging receipt.
While the “all correct" history is widely accepted, there are a a few other plausible theories; that it came from the Finnish word oikea, theChocktaw word okeh, the Greek olla kalla, and from the symbol on the signs Civil War soldiers carried that indicated “zero killed."
"OK" is the world’s best-known American term that has roots (both real and imaginary) in nearly every ethnic group that calls America home. OK? OK.
(via The Week)