Two Origin Stories
There are two origin stories to why we say “OK”.
#1 Origin story of “OK”
It started back in 1839 as a joke among newspaper editors. They used “OK” as an abbreviation for “oll korrect”, which was a playful misspelling of “all correct.”
There seems to be consensus that the first appearance of “OK” was in a satirical article in 1839, by editor Charles Gordon Greene of the Boston Morning Post.
It was meant to be funny, but soon, people stared using “OK” in everyday language to say everything is fine or that they agreed with something.
It quickly caught on, and spread like wildfire.
Now, “OK” is known and used all around the world.
It shows how something small and playful went viral in even in the old days, and has now become an integrated part of how we all communicate.
#2 Origin story of “OK”
Martin van Buren, of Dutch decent, was the 8th US president, and the only to have spoken English as a 2nd language. He was from Kinderhook in New York.
He was part of the men’s club called “Old Kinderhook”. If you were cool, you were in the club. They would typically say: that guy is “OK”. Because he was in the “Old Kinderhook”.
Slideshow version of this article explaining why we say “OK“?
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