You've probably said OK a few times today. But these two letters started out as a joke.
Summer 1838, Boston. A strange fad was spreading through the newspapers. It was a game of shortening phrases to initials and even misspelling them on purpose.
O.W.oll wright, as in all right
G.T.gone to Texas, meaning they took off
Newspapers were cracking jokes back then too
March 23, 1839, the Boston Morning Post. It ran o.k. there. It was short for all correct, misspelled as oll korrect.
They misspelled all correct on purpose?
Most of these joke words died out fast. OK survived thanks to this man. Martin Van Buren, the 8th US president.
His hometown was Kinderhook, so his nickname was Old Kinderhook. In the 1840 election, his supporters pushed OK as short for that nickname. Vote for OK. OK gets my vote.
That election got the whole country buzzing. Van Buren lost it. The winner was OK.
The president lost and the slang stayed
This story came out in the 1960s. Linguist Allen Walker Read dug it up by searching old newspapers page by page.
Sources
Photo credits
- Martin Van Buren by George Peter Alexander Healy (National Portrait Gallery).jpg, George Peter Alexander Healy, Public domain (source)
- The contrast, or, Plain reasons why William Henry Harrison should be elected President of the United States - and why Martin Van Buren should not be re-elected (1840) (14584293478).jpg, Moore, Jacob Bailey, 1797-1853; Miscellaneous Pamphlet Collection (Library of Congress) DLC, No restrictions (source)
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