Okay is a widespread word, internationally.
It is interesting to note that there is probably no other word that is so widespread internationally. Because “okay” (transliterated into Khmer language as អូខេ) is not only heard in the USA, but all over the world: in South America, in the Arab world and in Asia. This makes it one of the most frequently used words in the world, and yet no one knows exactly why or how this expression came into being. This makes the word so interesting that an American linguist, Allen Metcalf, has written a 200-page book about it, “OK – The improbable story of America’s Greatest Word.”
First clear evidence from the year 1839
However, scientists had already investigated the question earlier. The explanation still in use today was published in a 1941 paper. According to it, the oldest unambiguous evidence for this expression dates back to 1839, when the abbreviation o.k. appeared in the Boston Morning Post as an abbreviation for “all correct”. Now, as all English teachers know, the word “all” begins with an “a” and “correct” with a “c”, so “all correct” should actually be abbreviated to “a.c.”. But there must have been a fashion on the U.S. East Coast at that time to use abbreviations that were emphatically orthographically incorrect. So there was the abbreviation “ky” for “know yuse” instead of “no use”. And so the editor of the Boston Morning Post just put o.k. for all correct, and he didn’t just do it once, he did it again and again.
References to earlier insider abbreviation, but hardly any evidence
So was this just the whim of a single editor? There are some indications that it was already an insider abbreviation before. And so it could be that “o.k.” was already in greater use back then. But one doesn’t know, because there is little written evidence.
Part of a US presidential election campaign
What is known, however, is that the phrase was used in an election campaign a year later. Incumbent U.S. President Martin van Buren was running for re-election. Van Buren was from a town called Kinderhook. He had the nickname “Old Kinderhook” and flirted with it. Now, as one with some acumen immediately notices, Old Kinderhook can also be abbreviated to “O.K.”. And he then adopted that in his election campaign: “Old Kinderhook is OK” – that was the message of his campaign strategists, which at least suggests that everyone at the time knew something with that abbreviation. Van Buren lost the re-election and did not become president, but at least the campaign helped to spread the expression.
Parallel to this campaign, the unproven story was spread at that time that already his predecessor, U.S. President, Andrew Jackson, had used “o.k.” as an abbreviation for “all correct.” And this story, whether true or invented, is said to have then reinforced the fashion.
Abbreviation common and useful in telegraphy
The worldwide career of the expression came mainly through telegraphy. Just as text messaging has brought a wealth of abbreviations into the German language today, it was also helpful in telegraphy to use abbreviations, at least for frequently used messages. And “o.k.” for all clear, all understood, was of course very practical.
Further theories
And there are other theories. Some say that “O.K.” in telegraphs actually meant open key – that is, as much as “ready to receive”, and had nothing at all to do with the other okay – all correct.
There is also a theory that the word comes from the language of the Choctaw Indians, where okeh means something like “yes!”, “that’s it!”.
In addition, there are all kinds of legends about an alleged German quality controller named Otto Krüger, Oskar Keller, Otto Krause – there are different versions of this story. This is said to have been a thorough German who worked at Ford or at other companies. And when he checked something and found it to be good, he is said to have signed it off with his initials “O.K.”. This story has lasted a long time in the German-speaking world, but there is no evidence for it.