Okay, OK, or ok? How to write history's most mysterious word
OK has been one of the most used words for the last 180 years. It's incredibly versatile, broadly understood, and generally acceptable to use in most forms of speaking and writing. But have you ever wondered what OK actually stands for?
Unfortunately, you'll be wondering forever. OK is a word that burst onto the word scene and has been Prom Queen for nearly two centuries by sheer universal popularity. And yet …. no one knows where she came from.
Some possible origin theories of OK include:
A shorthand of the German phrase "Ohne Korrectur", meaning no changes/without correction, used by those in the publishing industry
A Greek phrase, "Ὅλα Καλά" or “Ola Kala” meaning "everything is fine/all good" paraphrased as OK by Greek immigrants in telegrams home to keep the cost low
From the Finnish word "oikea" meaning right, correct
The initials of 1840 presidential candidate Martin Van Buren's nickname, Old Kinderhook (his hometown in New York State), and used as his campaign slogan
The most compelling theory, however, is that OK started off as a very silly joke. In 1839, Boston's Morning Post supposedly wrote O.K. as an initialism of orl korrect, a joke because it is not, in fact, at all correct. Apparently at the time, "comical" abbreviations and misspellings were all the rage which just goes to show humour is very much shaped by technology.
Apart from just being interesting, the origin of OK is relevant because it would dictate the way we write OK. There are three options - OK, okay, and ok. I'm not including O.K. because that is blatantly weird.
For most of its tenure, the commonly used form was OK. Then okay crept in. Recently, OK has taken over again. Lowercase ok has never really been respected as a legit way to format it. That said, there's no right way to write OK, although style guides might have preferences.
For me, OK feels the most correct but a bit yelly and old-fashioned. Okay is a hat-tip to the evolution of the word and feels truer to the way it's spoken. Lowercase ok does not sit well because I feel it should be pronounced "och".
For you, choose your fighter!👇 As always, be informed and consistent.
