WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.550 There's a two-letter word that we hear everywhere. 00:00:03.550 --> 00:00:04.720 OK. 00:00:04.720 --> 00:00:06.820 Okay. 00:00:06.920 --> 00:00:08.880 OK, are you OK Annie? 00:00:08.900 --> 00:00:11.460 OK OK OK, OK ladies… 00:00:11.460 --> 00:00:14.440 OK might be the most recognizable word on the planet. 00:00:14.450 --> 00:00:15.450 OK! 00:00:15.450 --> 00:00:16.450 OK. 00:00:16.450 --> 00:00:20.280 It's essential to how we communicate with each other, and even with our technology. 00:00:20.280 --> 00:00:23.240 Alexa, turn off the living room light. 00:00:23.240 --> 00:00:24.240 OK. 00:00:24.680 --> 00:00:27.450 You probably use it every day – even if you don't notice it. 00:00:27.450 --> 00:00:29.999 But, what does OK actually mean? 00:00:29.999 --> 00:00:32.439 And where did it come from? 00:00:32.540 --> 00:00:33.079 Hm. 00:00:33.079 --> 00:00:34.079 OK. 00:00:34.079 --> 00:00:35.079 Okay then. 00:00:35.079 --> 00:00:36.979 OK, thank you. 00:00:36.979 --> 00:00:42.510 OK actually traces back to an 1830s fad of intentionally misspelling abbreviations. 00:00:42.510 --> 00:00:47.210 Young “intellectual” types in Boston delighted those “in the know” with butchered coded 00:00:47.210 --> 00:00:55.429 messages such as KC, or “knuff ced”, KY, “know yuse,” and OW, “oll wright.” 00:00:55.429 --> 00:00:56.429 Haha. 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." 00:01:03.800 --> 00:01:08.140 In the early 1800s, “all correct” was a common phrase used to confirm that everything 00:01:08.140 --> 00:01:09.260 was in order. 00:01:09.260 --> 00:01:16.030 Its abbreviated cousin started going mainstream on March 23, 1839, when OK was first published 00:01:16.030 --> 00:01:17.750 in the Boston Morning Post. 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 00:01:22.610 --> 00:01:26.820 something everyone knew about, not just a few Boston insiders. 00:01:26.820 --> 00:01:31.880 And OK's newfound popularity even prompted a flailing US president from Kinderhook, New York, 00:01:31.880 --> 00:01:35.700 to adopt it as a nickname during his 1840 reelection campaign. 00:01:35.700 --> 00:01:40.780 Van Buren's supporters formed OK Clubs all over the country, and their message was pretty 00:01:40.780 --> 00:01:43.690 clear: Old Kinderhook was “oll korrect.” 00:01:43.690 --> 00:01:47.630 The campaign was highly publicized and turned pretty nasty in the press. 00:01:47.630 --> 00:01:51.380 His opponents ended up turning the abbreviation around on him, saying it stood for “Orful 00:01:51.380 --> 00:01:53.900 Konspiracy” or “Orful Katastrophe” 00:01:55.140 --> 00:01:55.640 Hah. 00:01:56.120 --> 00:02:00.120 In the end, even a clever nickname didn't save Van Buren's presidency. 00:02:00.120 --> 00:02:01.850 But it was a win for OK. 00:02:01.850 --> 00:02:06.550 That 1840 presidential campaign firmly established OK in the American vernacular. 00:02:06.550 --> 00:02:10.959 And while similar abbreviations fell out of fashion, OK made the crossover from slang 00:02:10.960 --> 00:02:17.248 into legitimate, functional use thanks to one invention: the telegraph. 00:02:17.867 --> 00:02:20.400 If we lower the bridge, the current flows to the sounder. 00:02:20.400 --> 00:02:24.360 At the other end, the current energizes an electromagnet and this attracts the armature. 00:02:24.360 --> 00:02:27.760 The armature clicks down against a screw and taps out a message. 00:02:27.760 --> 00:02:32.450 The telegraph debuted in 1844, just five years after OK. 00:02:32.450 --> 00:02:37.510 It transmitted short messages in the form of electric pulses, with combinations of dots 00:02:37.510 --> 00:02:41.550 and dashes representing letters of the alphabet. 00:02:41.550 --> 00:02:43.420 This was OK's moment to shine. 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. 00:02:47.780 --> 00:02:52.409 It was quickly adopted as a standard acknowledgement of a transmission received, especially by 00:02:52.409 --> 00:02:54.980 operators on the expanding US railroad. 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 00:02:59.969 --> 00:03:04.190 regarded as transmitted until the office receiving it gives O K.” 00:03:04.190 --> 00:03:06.020 OK had become serious business. 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 00:03:09.740 --> 00:03:10.900 they're easy to communicate. 00:03:10.900 --> 00:03:12.969 It has to do with how OK looks. 00:03:12.969 --> 00:03:16.769 Or more specifically, how the letter K looks and sounds. 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 00:03:20.939 --> 00:03:23.080 around 22nd in the alphabet. 00:03:23.080 --> 00:03:27.239 That rarity spurred a “Kraze for K” at the turn of the century in advertising and 00:03:27.239 --> 00:03:32.299 print, where companies replaced hard Cs with Ks in order to Katch your eye. 00:03:32.299 --> 00:03:37.419 The idea was that modifying a word — like Klearflax Linen Rugs or this Kook-Rite Stove, 00:03:37.419 --> 00:03:40.310 for example — would draw more attention to it. 00:03:40.310 --> 00:03:45.169 And that's still a visual strategy: We see K represented in modern corporate logos, like 00:03:45.169 --> 00:03:47.160 Krispy-Kreme and Kool-Aid. 00:03:47.160 --> 00:03:49.980 It's the K that makes it so memorable. 00:03:49.989 --> 00:03:55.400 By the 1890s, OK's Bostonian origins were already mostly forgotten, and newspapers began 00:03:55.400 --> 00:03:59.749 to debate its history — often perpetuating myths in the process that some people still 00:03:59.749 --> 00:04:00.749 believe. 00:04:00.749 --> 00:04:05.050 Like the claim that it comes from the Choctaw word ‘okeh,' which means ‘so it is.' 00:04:05.050 --> 00:04:07.769 Choctaw gave us the word OK… 00:04:07.769 --> 00:04:12.340 OK's beginnings had become obscure but it didn't really matter anymore — the word 00:04:12.340 --> 00:04:13.950 was embedded in our language. 00:04:13.950 --> 00:04:17.310 Today, we use it as the ultimate “neutral affirmative.” 00:04:17.310 --> 00:04:18.310 OK then. 00:04:18.310 --> 00:04:19.500 Okay then. 00:04:19.500 --> 00:04:21.070 Learn to truly love yourself. 00:04:21.070 --> 00:04:22.070 OK. 00:04:22.070 --> 00:04:22.560 OK. 00:04:22.560 --> 00:04:23.560 Get yourself up here! 00:04:23.760 --> 00:04:24.760 OK! 00:04:25.060 --> 00:04:27.160 I don't know what to say. 00:04:27.160 --> 00:04:28.600 Say OK. 00:04:30.660 --> 00:04:31.160 OK. 00:04:31.160 --> 00:04:33.030 It's settled then! 00:04:33.030 --> 00:04:37.910 Allan Metcalf wrote the definitive history of OK, and he explains that the word “affirms 00:04:37.910 --> 00:04:41.730 without evaluating,” meaning it doesn't convey any feelings — it just acknowledges 00:04:41.730 --> 00:04:42.960 and accepts information. 00:04:42.960 --> 00:04:46.080 If you “got home OK,” it just means you were unharmed. 00:04:46.080 --> 00:04:49.670 If your “food was OK,” then it was acceptable. 00:04:49.670 --> 00:04:51.610 And “OK” confirms a change of plans. 00:04:51.610 --> 00:04:55.950 It's is sort of a reflex at this point - 00:04:55.950 --> 00:04:56.440 we don't even keep track of how much we use it. 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. 00:05:10.200 --> 00:05:13.640 Not bad for a corny joke from the 1830s. 00:05:13.710 --> 00:05:16.060 Alright guys, cut it out.