Friday, March 23, 2018

OK IS OK



OK IS OK

MARCH 23, 1839 OK IS NOW VERNACULAR


“O. K.” was first published March 23, 1839 in the Boston Morning Post. It is meant to
to be the abbreviation for “oll korrect” a slang misspelling of “all correct” at the time.

Since then OK has steadily made its way into the everyday speech of Americans.

Late in the 1830's a favorite practice among the younger, educated ones, to 'misspell'
and abbreviate words when talking to one another, they called it 'slang'.  Sort of like 
'texting'   is today.

OK's popularity exploded when it was printed in the Boston newspaper and then picked up
by politicians of the time.

Up for reelection was Martin Van Buren was supported by a group , “The OK Gang” ,
which referred to both the OK made popular in newspapers and the nickname given
him, “Old Kinderbrook” for his New York hometown.

Another political party used OK to belittle Van Buren in some unknown way.

Allen Walker Reed, linguist and professor at Columbia University, was responsible for
unraveling the mystery by dispelling theories on the origins of OK, ranging from , a bisquit
what was called “Orrin Kendall' by the Army, a Haitian port city, Aux Cayes, famed for it's
rum to a Choctaw Indian Chief, Old Keokuk.




Abstract March 23, 2018 by Harrison H., from www.history.com/thisdayinhistory/ok by
History.com staff in 2009, for www.iinni.blogspot.com


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