The TRUTH ABOUT O.K. |From the 1999 Farmers’ Almanac
By Richard Lederer
Richard Lederer is a contributing editor for the Farmers’ Almanac and a well-known author, speaker, and verbalist.
The most widely understood American word in the world is O.K. The explanations for its origin have been as imaginative as they have been various. Some have claimed that O.K. is a version of the Choctaw affirmative okeh. Others have asserted that it is short for the Greek olla kalla (“all good”) or Orrin Kendall crackers or Aux Cayes rum or the name of chief Old Keokuk or only kissing.
The truth is more politically correct than any of these theories.
In the 1830s in New England, there was a craze for initialisms, in the manner of the currently popular T.G.I.F. and P.D.Q. The fad went so far as to generate letter combinations of intentional misspellings: K.G. for “know go,” K.Y. for “know use,” and O.W. for “oll wright.” O.K. for “oll korrect” naturally followed.
Of all the loopy initialisms and misspellings of the time, O.K. alone survived. That’s because of a presidential nickname that consolidated the letters in the national memory.
RELATED: The History of Uncle Sam
Martin Van Buren, elected our eighth president in 1836, was born in Kinderhook, New York, and, early in his political career, was dubbed “Old Kinderhook.” Echoing the “oll korrect” initialism, O.K. became the rallying cry of the Old Kinderhook Club, a political organization supporting Van Buren during the 1840 campaign.
The coinage did Van Buren no good, and he was defeated in his bid for re-election. But the word honoring his name today remains what H. L. Mencken identified as “the most shining and successful Americanism ever invented.”
EDITOR’S NOTE:
O.K., ok, or OK? Ever wonder which is the correct way to write “O.K.”? Do you use all capital letters? Do you have to use periods? According to the dictionary and Lederer, capital letters are preferred and the periods are optional. So it should be either O.K. or OK.
