Although we use this word hundreds of times a week whether things are OK or not,we have probably rarely wondered about its history.That history is in fact a brief one,the word being first recorded in 1839,though it was no doubt in circulation before then.Much scholarship has been expended on the origins ofOK,but Allen Walker Read has conclusively proved thatOK is based on a sort of joke. Someone pronounced the phraseall correct as oll (or orl ) correct,and the same person or someone else spelled itoll korrect,which abbreviated gives usOK. This term gained wide currency by being used as a political slogan by the 1840 Democratic candidate Martin Van Buren,who was nicknamedOld Kinderhook because he was born in Kinderhook,of the same year,referring to the receipt of a pin with the sloganO.K.,had this comment: “frightful letters . . . significant of the birth-place of Martin Van Buren,old Kinderhook,as also the rallying word of the Democracy of the late election，‘all correct’ . . . Those who wear them should bear in mind that it will require their most strenuous exertions . . . to make all things O.K.”
OK'd or O.K.'d or o.kayed OK'ing or O.K.'ing or o.kay.ing OK's or O.K.'s or o.kays
To approve of or agree to; authorize.
interj.
Used to express approval or agreement.
Abbreviation of oll korrect
slang respelling of all correct
OK
adv.
adj.
Although we use this word hundreds of times a week whether things are OK or not,we have probably rarely wondered about its history.That history is in fact a brief one,the word being first recorded in 1839,though it was no doubt in circulation before then.Much scholarship has been expended on the origins ofOK,but Allen Walker Read has conclusively proved thatOK is based on a sort of joke. Someone pronounced the phraseall correct as oll (or orl ) correct,and the same person or someone else spelled itoll korrect,which abbreviated gives usOK. This term gained wide currency by being used as a political slogan by the 1840 Democratic candidate Martin Van Buren,who was nicknamedOld Kinderhook because he was born in Kinderhook,New editorial of the same year,referring to the receipt of a pin with the sloganO.K.,had this comment: “frightful letters . . . significant of the birth-place of Martin Van Buren,old Kinderhook,as also the rallying word of the Democracy of the late election，‘all correct’ . . . Those who wear them should bear in mind that it will require their most strenuous exertions . . . to make all things O.K.”
OK
OK 2
abbr.
Oklahoma.
ok
Important derivatives are: eye,daisy,window,eyelet,ocular,inoculate,monocle,myopia,autopsy,synopsis,optic,optometry
To see.
eye ; daisy,from Old English ¶e,eye;
walleyed,window,from Old Norse auga,eye;
ogle,from Low German oog,oge,eye. a,b,and c all from Germanic *aug½- (with taboo deformation).
Suffixed form*ok w-olo- .
eyelet,ocellus,ocular,oculist,ullage ; inoculate,monocle,oculomotor,pinochle,from Latin oculus,eye;
inveigle,from French aveugle,blind,from Gallo-Latin compound *ab-oculus,blind,modeled on Gaulish ex-ops,blind.
