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There's a two-letter word[br]that we hear everywhere.

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OK.

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Okay.

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OK, are you OK Annie?

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OK OK OK, OK ladies…

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OK might be the most [br]recognizable word on the planet.

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OK!

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OK.

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It's essential to how we communicate with[br]each other, and even with our technology.

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Alexa, turn off the living room light.

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OK.

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You probably use it every day –[br]even if you don't notice it.

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But, what does OK actually mean?

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And where did it come from?

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Hm.

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OK.

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Okay then.

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OK, thank you.

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OK actually traces back to an 1830s fad of[br]intentionally misspelling abbreviations.

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Young “intellectual” types in Boston delighted[br]those “in the know” with butchered coded

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messages such as KC, or “knuff ced”, KY,[br]“know yuse,” and OW, “oll wright.”

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Haha.

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But thanks to a couple of lucky breaks, one[br]abbreviation rose above the rest: OK, or “oll korrect."

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In the early 1800s, “all correct” was[br]a common phrase used to confirm that everything

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was in order.

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Its abbreviated cousin started going mainstream[br]on March 23, 1839, when OK was first published

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in the Boston Morning Post.

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Soon other papers picked up on the joke and[br]spread it around the country, until OK was

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something everyone knew about, not just a[br]few Boston insiders.

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And OK's newfound popularity even prompted[br]a flailing US president from Kinderhook, New York,

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to adopt it as a nickname during his[br]1840 reelection campaign.

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Van Buren's supporters formed OK Clubs all[br]over the country, and their message was pretty

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clear: Old Kinderhook was “oll korrect.”

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The campaign was highly publicized and turned[br]pretty nasty in the press.

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His opponents ended up turning the abbreviation[br]around on him, saying it stood for “Orful

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Konspiracy” or “Orful Katastrophe”

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Hah.

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In the end, even a clever nickname didn't[br]save Van Buren's presidency.

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But it was a win for OK.

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That 1840 presidential campaign firmly established[br]OK in the American vernacular.

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And while similar abbreviations fell out of[br]fashion, OK made the crossover from slang

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into legitimate, functional use thanks to[br]one invention: the telegraph.

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If we lower the bridge, the current flows[br]to the sounder.

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At the other end, the current energizes an[br]electromagnet and this attracts the armature.

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The armature clicks down against a screw and[br]taps out a message.

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The telegraph debuted in 1844, just five years[br]after OK.

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It transmitted short messages in the form[br]of electric pulses, with combinations of dots

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and dashes representing letters of the alphabet.

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This was OK's moment to shine.

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The two letters were easy to tap out and very[br]unlikely to be confused with anything else.

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It was quickly adopted as a standard acknowledgement[br]of a transmission received, especially by

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operators on the expanding US railroad.

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This telegraphic manual from 1865 even goes[br]as far as to say that “no message is ever

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regarded as transmitted until the office receiving[br]it gives O K.”

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OK had become serious business.

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But there's another big reason the two letters[br]stuck around, and it's not just because

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they're easy to communicate.

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It has to do with how OK looks.

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Or more specifically, how the letter K looks[br]and sounds.

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It's really uncommon to start a word with[br]the letter K in English — it's ranked

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around 22nd in the alphabet.

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That rarity spurred a “Kraze for K” at[br]the turn of the century in advertising and

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print, where companies replaced hard Cs with[br]Ks in order to Katch your eye.

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The idea was that modifying a word — like[br]Klearflax Linen Rugs or this Kook-Rite Stove,

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for example — would draw more attention[br]to it.

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And that's still a visual strategy: We see[br]K represented in modern corporate logos, like

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Krispy-Kreme and Kool-Aid.

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It's the K that makes it so memorable.

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By the 1890s, OK's Bostonian origins were[br]already mostly forgotten, and newspapers began

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to debate its history — often perpetuating[br]myths in the process that some people still

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believe.

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Like the claim that it comes from the Choctaw[br]word ‘okeh,' which means ‘so it is.'

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Choctaw gave us the word OK…

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OK's beginnings had become obscure but it[br]didn't really matter anymore — the word

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was embedded in our language.

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Today, we use it as the ultimate “neutral[br]affirmative.”

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OK then.

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Okay then.

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Learn to truly love yourself.

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OK.

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OK.

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Get yourself up here!

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OK!

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I don't know what to say.

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Say OK.

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OK.

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It's settled then!

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Allan Metcalf wrote the definitive history[br]of OK, and he explains that the word “affirms

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without evaluating,” meaning it doesn't[br]convey any feelings — it just acknowledges

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and accepts information.

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If you “got home OK,” it just means you[br]were unharmed.

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If your “food was OK,” then it was acceptable.

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And “OK” confirms a change of plans.

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It's is sort of a reflex at this point -

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we[br]don't even keep track of how much we use it.

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Which might be why OK was arguably the first[br]word spoken when humans landed on the moon.

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Not bad for a corny joke from the 1830s.

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Alright guys, cut it out.