1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:03,550 There's a two-letter word that we hear everywhere. 2 00:00:03,550 --> 00:00:04,720 OK. 3 00:00:04,720 --> 00:00:06,820 Okay. 4 00:00:06,920 --> 00:00:08,880 OK, are you OK Annie? 5 00:00:08,900 --> 00:00:11,460 OK OK OK, OK ladies… 6 00:00:11,460 --> 00:00:14,440 OK might be the most recognizable word on the planet. 7 00:00:14,450 --> 00:00:15,450 OK! 8 00:00:15,450 --> 00:00:16,450 OK. 9 00:00:16,450 --> 00:00:20,280 It's essential to how we communicate with each other, and even with our technology. 10 00:00:20,280 --> 00:00:23,240 Alexa, turn off the living room light. 11 00:00:23,240 --> 00:00:24,240 OK. 12 00:00:24,680 --> 00:00:27,450 You probably use it every day – even if you don't notice it. 13 00:00:27,450 --> 00:00:29,999 But, what does OK actually mean? 14 00:00:29,999 --> 00:00:32,439 And where did it come from? 15 00:00:32,540 --> 00:00:33,079 Hm. 16 00:00:33,079 --> 00:00:34,079 OK. 17 00:00:34,079 --> 00:00:35,079 Okay then. 18 00:00:35,079 --> 00:00:36,979 OK, thank you. 19 00:00:36,979 --> 00:00:42,510 OK actually traces back to an 1830s fad of intentionally misspelling abbreviations. 20 00:00:42,510 --> 00:00:47,210 Young “intellectual” types in Boston delighted those “in the know” with butchered coded 21 00:00:47,210 --> 00:00:55,429 messages such as KC, or “knuff ced”, KY, “know yuse,” and OW, “oll wright.” 22 00:00:55,429 --> 00:00:56,429 Haha. 23 00:00:56,429 --> 00:01:03,660 But thanks to a couple of lucky breaks, one abbreviation rose above the rest: OK, or “oll korrect." 24 00:01:03,800 --> 00:01:08,140 In the early 1800s, “all correct” was a common phrase used to confirm that everything 25 00:01:08,140 --> 00:01:09,260 was in order. 26 00:01:09,260 --> 00:01:16,030 Its abbreviated cousin started going mainstream on March 23, 1839, when OK was first published 27 00:01:16,030 --> 00:01:17,750 in the Boston Morning Post. 28 00:01:17,750 --> 00:01:22,610 Soon other papers picked up on the joke and spread it around the country, until OK was 29 00:01:22,610 --> 00:01:26,820 something everyone knew about, not just a few Boston insiders. 30 00:01:26,820 --> 00:01:31,880 And OK's newfound popularity even prompted a flailing US president from Kinderhook, New York, 31 00:01:31,880 --> 00:01:35,700 to adopt it as a nickname during his 1840 reelection campaign. 32 00:01:35,700 --> 00:01:40,780 Van Buren's supporters formed OK Clubs all over the country, and their message was pretty 33 00:01:40,780 --> 00:01:43,690 clear: Old Kinderhook was “oll korrect.” 34 00:01:43,690 --> 00:01:47,630 The campaign was highly publicized and turned pretty nasty in the press. 35 00:01:47,630 --> 00:01:51,380 His opponents ended up turning the abbreviation around on him, saying it stood for “Orful 36 00:01:51,380 --> 00:01:53,900 Konspiracy” or “Orful Katastrophe” 37 00:01:55,140 --> 00:01:55,640 Hah. 38 00:01:56,120 --> 00:02:00,120 In the end, even a clever nickname didn't save Van Buren's presidency. 39 00:02:00,120 --> 00:02:01,850 But it was a win for OK. 40 00:02:01,850 --> 00:02:06,550 That 1840 presidential campaign firmly established OK in the American vernacular. 41 00:02:06,550 --> 00:02:10,959 And while similar abbreviations fell out of fashion, OK made the crossover from slang 42 00:02:10,960 --> 00:02:17,248 into legitimate, functional use thanks to one invention: the telegraph. 43 00:02:17,867 --> 00:02:20,400 If we lower the bridge, the current flows to the sounder. 44 00:02:20,400 --> 00:02:24,360 At the other end, the current energizes an electromagnet and this attracts the armature. 45 00:02:24,360 --> 00:02:27,760 The armature clicks down against a screw and taps out a message. 46 00:02:27,760 --> 00:02:32,450 The telegraph debuted in 1844, just five years after OK. 47 00:02:32,450 --> 00:02:37,510 It transmitted short messages in the form of electric pulses, with combinations of dots 48 00:02:37,510 --> 00:02:41,550 and dashes representing letters of the alphabet. 49 00:02:41,550 --> 00:02:43,420 This was OK's moment to shine. 50 00:02:43,420 --> 00:02:47,780 The two letters were easy to tap out and very unlikely to be confused with anything else. 51 00:02:47,780 --> 00:02:52,409 It was quickly adopted as a standard acknowledgement of a transmission received, especially by 52 00:02:52,409 --> 00:02:54,980 operators on the expanding US railroad. 53 00:02:54,980 --> 00:02:59,969 This telegraphic manual from 1865 even goes as far as to say that “no message is ever 54 00:02:59,969 --> 00:03:04,190 regarded as transmitted until the office receiving it gives O K.” 55 00:03:04,190 --> 00:03:06,020 OK had become serious business. 56 00:03:06,020 --> 00:03:09,739 But there's another big reason the two letters stuck around, and it's not just because 57 00:03:09,740 --> 00:03:10,900 they're easy to communicate. 58 00:03:10,900 --> 00:03:12,969 It has to do with how OK looks. 59 00:03:12,969 --> 00:03:16,769 Or more specifically, how the letter K looks and sounds. 60 00:03:16,769 --> 00:03:20,939 It's really uncommon to start a word with the letter K in English — it's ranked 61 00:03:20,939 --> 00:03:23,080 around 22nd in the alphabet. 62 00:03:23,080 --> 00:03:27,239 That rarity spurred a “Kraze for K” at the turn of the century in advertising and 63 00:03:27,239 --> 00:03:32,299 print, where companies replaced hard Cs with Ks in order to Katch your eye. 64 00:03:32,299 --> 00:03:37,419 The idea was that modifying a word — like Klearflax Linen Rugs or this Kook-Rite Stove, 65 00:03:37,419 --> 00:03:40,310 for example — would draw more attention to it. 66 00:03:40,310 --> 00:03:45,169 And that's still a visual strategy: We see K represented in modern corporate logos, like 67 00:03:45,169 --> 00:03:47,160 Krispy-Kreme and Kool-Aid. 68 00:03:47,160 --> 00:03:49,980 It's the K that makes it so memorable. 69 00:03:49,989 --> 00:03:55,400 By the 1890s, OK's Bostonian origins were already mostly forgotten, and newspapers began 70 00:03:55,400 --> 00:03:59,749 to debate its history — often perpetuating myths in the process that some people still 71 00:03:59,749 --> 00:04:00,749 believe. 72 00:04:00,749 --> 00:04:05,050 Like the claim that it comes from the Choctaw word ‘okeh,' which means ‘so it is.' 73 00:04:05,050 --> 00:04:07,769 Choctaw gave us the word OK… 74 00:04:07,769 --> 00:04:12,340 OK's beginnings had become obscure but it didn't really matter anymore — the word 75 00:04:12,340 --> 00:04:13,950 was embedded in our language. 76 00:04:13,950 --> 00:04:17,310 Today, we use it as the ultimate “neutral affirmative.” 77 00:04:17,310 --> 00:04:18,310 OK then. 78 00:04:18,310 --> 00:04:19,500 Okay then. 79 00:04:19,500 --> 00:04:21,070 Learn to truly love yourself. 80 00:04:21,070 --> 00:04:22,070 OK. 81 00:04:22,070 --> 00:04:22,560 OK. 82 00:04:22,560 --> 00:04:23,560 Get yourself up here! 83 00:04:23,760 --> 00:04:24,760 OK! 84 00:04:25,060 --> 00:04:27,160 I don't know what to say. 85 00:04:27,160 --> 00:04:28,600 Say OK. 86 00:04:30,660 --> 00:04:31,160 OK. 87 00:04:31,160 --> 00:04:33,030 It's settled then! 88 00:04:33,030 --> 00:04:37,910 Allan Metcalf wrote the definitive history of OK, and he explains that the word “affirms 89 00:04:37,910 --> 00:04:41,730 without evaluating,” meaning it doesn't convey any feelings — it just acknowledges 90 00:04:41,730 --> 00:04:42,960 and accepts information. 91 00:04:42,960 --> 00:04:46,080 If you “got home OK,” it just means you were unharmed. 92 00:04:46,080 --> 00:04:49,670 If your “food was OK,” then it was acceptable. 93 00:04:49,670 --> 00:04:51,610 And “OK” confirms a change of plans. 94 00:04:51,610 --> 00:04:55,950 It's is sort of a reflex at this point - 95 00:04:55,950 --> 00:04:56,440 we don't even keep track of how much we use it. 96 00:04:56,440 --> 00:05:01,660 Which might be why OK was arguably the first word spoken when humans landed on the moon. 97 00:05:10,200 --> 00:05:13,640 Not bad for a corny joke from the 1830s. 98 00:05:13,710 --> 00:05:16,060 Alright guys, cut it out.