World’s most recognized word
OK, so this article is about a very common multi-purpose word that we all say many times a day without even noticing. It is the one word that can mean anything from an excited agreement to a confused “eh” depending upon the tone and expressions of the speaker. And sometimes it can also act as a pretty nice starter for an article about the etymology of itself. Well, it is OK if you are still guessing because technically I haven’t disclosed today’s star word yet, OK? OK. Yes, it surely is “OK”.
As the title of the article suggests, OK is world’s most recognized word. The second one, by the way, is Coca Cola (by God, I didn’t get paid for this). By standards of words, if OK was a song, it would go viral in seconds and would break all records of staying in top charts for the longest period of time. OK (or more recently “K.”) is actually the easiest way to say a lot of things. In fact the numerous theories that try to figure out the origin of OK are proof of the popularity of the word as well as the perplexity behind its origins. People have suggested Greek, German, French and even Native American as the ancestors of OK, but the best explanation is considered to be given by the lexicographer Allen Walker Read.
According to Read, the story of OK begins in 1839 when a Boston newspaper used the word as a slang abbreviation for “All Correct”. During those times, there was a trend in Boston of shortening spellings by abbreviating them. For example instead of “It Shall Be Done”, they would write i.s.b.d. It was just cool that way. Good thing the trend ended ASAP or, OMG! English would be so hard, LOL!
But, in the 1830s, the Bostonians would even play around with the spellings and take the abbreviation trend to a whole new level. For example, “No Go” would become KG (Know Go) and “All Right” was written OW (Owl Wright).
Fine. But, how did this one word survive to rule over the world, and all others lived a quiet life and died within Boston? The answer lies in the 1840 re-election of Democratic President Martin Van Buren. Due to the fact that he was born in Kinderhook, New York, he was called Old Kinderhook and that is where his supporters got the idea of forming the O.K. Club to support their candidate. Since the word initially was used to refer to “All Correct”, it seemed to be a good choice for a Presidential candidate’s initials. But, guess what? He lost! His initials, however, stuck and lived on. Just when OK could become extinct, the Telegraph Office came to the rescue and started using the simple message “OK” to confirm that transmission was all correct. It was shorter than even “yes”, so it made sense to use the easiest available option.
With time, OK became Okay, Okey-dokey and Oh-key among other things. Isn’t it amazing how the superstar word of our time had such awkward beginnings? But, that does not actually matter you see, because language is an eerie phenomenon itself. Words come from places where you least expect them. As long as we can freely use them for effective communication, that’s OK!