Born in Boston on 23 March 1839 as a comic abbreviation for the misspelled phrase 'oll korrect', OK became the most globally recognised word in existence within two centuries.
Satisfactory, acceptable, or in good condition. As an interjection: expressing agreement or acknowledgement. As a verb: to give approval.
The leading scholarly theory, advanced by etymologist Allen Walker Read in the 1960s, holds that OK originated as an abbreviation of the comic misspelling 'oll korrect' (all correct), part of a vogue in 1839 Boston for humorous abbreviations of deliberately misspelled phrases. It appeared in the Boston Morning Post on 23 March 1839. The abbreviation was then popularised by the 1840 presidential campaign of Martin Van Buren, nicknamed 'Old Kinderhook', whose supporters formed
OK may be the most widely recognised word on Earth — used in virtually every language. Linguist Allen Walker Read spent decades tracking it down; his 1963–64 papers in the journal American Speech remain the definitive study. The word is younger than the steam locomotive and has conquered the world in under 200