Wordfight at the OK Quarrel

The abbreviation of O.K is so much more than an abbreviation.

It is an accepted word in its own right, a universally recognised and acknowledged term.

In tight, nervy, potentially explosive and confrontational situations there will have been many occasions when the use and comprehension of OK by either side in a conflict will have served as a lifeline and saving grace, or alternatively, the signal to pull the trigger.

OK would always be considered as the first scribbled entry in the margins of a global language dictionary and yet its origins are still very much a matter of speculation. This is very surprising given its rapid ascendancy into the English language and its persistence in that list of words to truly attain universal status.

The league table of global words is very fluid and on a year to year basis there will be new entrants, one hit wonders and a few dropping out of populist use altogether. The main drivers for new words are commercialism and the influence of the internet and these sources are more influential than ever. The process, with the emergence of a fresh crop of economically powerful nations, will be for words to originate from products, services and search engines and become quickly established in everyday language. It will  be possible to track back precisely to the hour, minute and second to the birth of a new word or term in direct contrast to the slow assimilation from word of mouth or through literature that has been the case in the development of language in the past.

Authoratative research and publications on the derivation of OK is divided.

The smart money is on its introduction as a bit of an in joke by intellectual types in Boston, USA in or around the late 1830's. A sense of superiority and self worth, nowadays just called being a smart-arse, led to the development of abbreviations to mimic the speaking voices of their supposed inferiors in society. O.W signified "oll wright", K.Y for "know yuse" and the sole survivor of this jolly jape, O.K for "oll wright".

This very much schoolboy brand humour graduated to a first appearance in print in a Boston daily newspaper in March 1839, or so the legend holds. As a sole source of information and influence, at that time, an apparent endorsement by a newspaper for a word or phrase would be the equivalent of something, today, 'trending' on Twitter.

In the following year the campaign for re-election by the then eighth President of the United States , Martin Van Buren, displayed OK prominently as part of its rallying cry. It is not clear if this was an intentional use and wordplay of "All Correct" in its proper grammatical form or just a coincidence in that his nickname was 'Old Kinderhook'. The hysteria of a crowded assembly room or other mass gatherings and the chanting of OK on a national basis appear to have consolidated its use and ensured longevity in this Americanism of the English language. There is, on a Presidential theme, the attachment of OK as a bastardised form of the semi-literate conversational traits of the seventh incumbent, Andrew Jackson who was in power in the decade prior to Van Buren and for whom Old Kinderhook was Vice President . Hailing from Tennessee it is conceivable that a drawling dialect would produce more of a sound of "Oll Korrect" than a crystal clear pronunciation.

There are of course many other theories as to the derivation of OK.

Surely ancient languages will have had some form of words to express the sentiment of OK even if it did not have any mileage beyond the range of a local dialect or a national border. In Greek, and forgive me if I spell this incorrectly, the phrase "Ola Kala" means everything is fine. The export of all things Greek including a reasonable proportion of its population to America and Australia as displaced migrants will have provided a new outlet and use for this form of reassurance. There is further speculation that OK evolved from the Scottish "Och Aye" which I personally feel is quite convincing again from the dissipation of Scots into every part of the world and therefore an ability to influence colloquialisms on a global basis.

Indeed, just about every dialect has a not dissimilar form of words or phrase from the Finnish "oikea" to Haitian "aux cayes" .

The  language of the native american Choctaw Indians whose traditional homelands were in the Mississippi and Alabama regions had the word 'Okeh'. African slaves, captured and incarcerated from all points of their home continent, had to develop a common form of communication and amongst the thriving vocabulary was the word " 'kays".

As well as individuals and foreign languages being cited as a possible source of OK there has also been speculation that a popular product in wide circulation may also have been the original catalyst to its use. This theory has included the practice of a manufacturer stamping initials  on a brand of baked biscuits with such producer being one Otto Kimmel.

Perhaps the most famous OK belongs to the Corral location of the cult-status gunfight of 1881. Iconic the abbreviation may make it but the initials are thought to refer to just an ordinary name, Old Kindersley.

We may never come to know the true derivation of the term but is it a matter of pride or embarassment that OK persists as arguably the greatest single gift to international language of all time? I am not aware that anyone has stepped forward to claim that honour.