Why we say “OK”

How a cheesy joke from the 1830s became the most widely spoken word in the world.

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OK is thought to be the most widely recognized word on the planet. We use it to communicate with each other, as well as our technology. But it actually started out as a language fad in the 1830’s of abbreviating words incorrectly.

Young intellectuals in Boston came up with several of these abbreviations, including “KC” for “knuff ced,” “OW” for “oll wright,” and KY for “know yuse.” But thanks to its appearance in Martin Van Buren’s 1840 presidential re-election campaign as the incumbents new nickname, Old Kinderhook, OK outlived its abbreviated comrades.

Later, widespread use by early telegraph operators caused OK to go mainstream, and its original purpose as a neutral affirmative is still how we use it today.

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

OK.

Okay.

OK, are you OK Annie?

OK OK OK, OK ladies…

OK might be the most
recognizable word on the planet.

OK!

OK.

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

Alexa, turn off the living room light.

OK.

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

But, what does OK actually mean?

And where did it come from?

Hm.

OK.

Okay then.

OK, thank you.

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

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

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

Haha.

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

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

was in order.

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

in the Boston Morning Post.

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

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

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

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

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

clear: Old Kinderhook was “oll korrect.”

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

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

Konspiracy” or “Orful Katastrophe”

Hah.

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

But it was a win for OK.

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

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

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

If we lower the bridge, the current flows
to the sounder.

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

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

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

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

and dashes representing letters of the alphabet.

This was OK's moment to shine.

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

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

operators on the expanding US railroad.

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

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

OK had become serious business.

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

they're easy to communicate.

It has to do with how OK looks.

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

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

around 22nd in the alphabet.

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

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

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

for example — would draw more attention
to it.

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

Krispy-Kreme and Kool-Aid.

It's the K that makes it so memorable.

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

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

believe.

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

Choctaw gave us the word OK…

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

was embedded in our language.

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

OK then.

Okay then.

Learn to truly love yourself.

OK.

OK.

Get yourself up here!

OK!

I don't know what to say.

Say OK.

OK.

It's settled then!

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

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

and accepts information.

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

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

And “OK” confirms a change of plans.

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

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

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

Not bad for a corny joke from the 1830s.

Alright guys, cut it out.