All through the 19th century, OK was spelled “OK”, with variations between capital letters and lower case, periods, and spaces; but always with just two letters. But one 19th-century exception has been noticed by Professor Allan Metcalf. The first edition of Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women, published in 1869, has one instance of the spelling “okay”, however, it was omitted in the second edition in 1880, which included neither okay nor OK, opting instead for the word “cozy”. [1]
Can you name the most widely recognized word in the world? OK, give it a go.
OK, or okay, is an English word used to indicate approval, acceptance, agreement, assent, acknowledgment, or even a sign of indifference. Described as one of the most frequently spoken or written words on the planet, linguistically it’s a still a baby – just 150 years old.
There are several theories about the origin of the word, but the most popular is that it appeared in the United States as a humorous abbreviation of the phrase “all correct.” In the late 1830s, it was popular to intentionally misspell words for comic effect, and “oll korrect” was one of the many playful misspellings that emerged during this time. Linguist Allen Walker Read identified the earliest known use of OK appeared in print in the edition of 23 March 1839 of the Boston Morning Post.
Another theory suggests that “OK” may have African origins. In some West African languages, the word “okeh” means “yes.” It is possible that this word was brought to the United States by African slaves and eventually evolved into the more commonly used “OK.”
OK not only spread throughout the English-speaking world, it also spread through the parts of speech, being used as an adjective, adverb, verb, noun, or interjection, depending on the context in which it is used.
Regardless of its origins, “OK” has become one of the most ubiquitous words in English, and has been adopted by many other languages around the world. Where would we be without it?