The word OK is recognized by just about everyone on the planet. What is the origin of the word? The answer is surprising.
The story was researched by Professor Allen Walker Read in the 1960s.
In the summer of 1838 there was a fad for using abbreviations. NG for No Good, PDQ for Pretty Darn Quick, RTBS for Remains To Be Seen. etc. This is not unlike the use of abbreviations like BTW and IMHO in USENET posts and internet message boards. Sometimes they used misspellings for humorous effect, which was another fad of the time.
OK stood for Oll Korrect, or all correct. It was first printed in the Boston Morning Post of 23 March 1839 in a tongue-in-cheek report about the ABRS (Anti-Bell Ringing Society.)
What made it catch on was the creation of the Democratic OK Club in New York to support their candidate Martin Van Buren in 1840. Van Buren was known as “Old Kinderhook”, Kinderhook being his birthplace near Albany, New York.
