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Etymology Of Okay (Or, Okay, "OK")
"On 23 March 1839, OK was introduced to the world on the second page of the Boston Morning Post, in the midst of a long paragraph, as 'o.k. (all correct)'. OK may have originated from a comical misspelling How this weak joke survived at all, instead of vanishing like its counterparts, is a matter of lucky coincidence involving the American presidential election of 1840."
—I prefer to spell it "okay," because it's a word I don't think should stand out so much. But Allan Metcalf's etymology of "America's Greatest Word" is so interesting, however he chooses to spell it is just fine with me.
Those apostrophes are terrible.
I'm OK–You're OK–These Apostrophes Are Shit.
Look at the jump after the 1960s!
I never believed that "all correct" story. I don't know what one I do believe though.
Weirdly, when I was at school in Warsaw, one of my professors (who is a straight-up hero on so many levels) got the "ok stands for all correct" part right, but insisted that it was a German (or possibly a Soviet?) who spoke poor English.
"Thus, even illiterates contribute to history!" he proclaimed, before returning to ranting on how Communism destroyed the Polish economy but not the Polish spirit.
and 172 years from now the world will be investigating the etymology of WTF… progress