Will's word of the week: OK

Before I begin, I must apologize for a recent faux pas. In last week's column on sanction, I accidentally dropped the "k" in the word likes in the line, "...the Oxford Movement that ... helped to inspire the likes of C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien of Inklings fame." My error might have given the impression that I was calling Lewis and Tolkien liars. On the contrary, I consider these two men [HTML_REMOVED] the creators of The Chronicles of Narnia and The Lord of the Rings [HTML_REMOVED] my literary heroes.

OK, now that I've set the record straight, we can begin. Oh, wait, I already used this week's word. Thanks are due to Jennifer Cushing for suggesting it. OK is one of the most ubiquitous, most used and most convenient words ever invented. Try going for a whole day without saying it. You'll probably find that it's nearly impossible.

It's an adjective (something that is OK is agreeable, good, correct, healthy, etc.), an adverb (something can work OK) and a noun (you can get an OK).

During World War II, American soldiers reported that the word had spread around the world, and was used by people from England to Japan to the Middle East. OK was and is one of the few genuinely universal words.

But where did it come from?

That has been a matter of great etymological debate for some time. German, French and British scholars claimed that the word was European in origin, and traceable to words in their languages (the military rank of "oberst kommandant," the Haitian town of Aux Cayes and various words in Elizabethan English, respectively), according to an article in the Oct. 26, 2002 edition of The Economist. There are many other theories, including the idea that a Choctaw Indian word, okeh, meaning "indeed" or "yes," is the father of OK.

Linguists scratched their collective heads for decades before Allen Walker Reed (1906-2002), possibly the greatest American etymologist of the 20th century, figured it out. Born in Minnesota, Reed attended Iowa University and was a Rhodes scholar at Oxford. He returned to the United States to a long and successful academic career, including 30 years as a professor of English at Columbia University in New York. As a hobby, he spent part of his time delving into the riddle of OK's mysterious heritage.

In an article in American Speech in 1963, Reed announced that he had discovered at least part of the answer.

In the big bustling cities of the East Coast of the 1830s, it became fashionable to substitute OK as shorthand for oll correct (or orl korrek), a slang form of all correct, according to a 2002 NPR report on OK. This is similar to our modern habit of using terms like FYI or ASAP, and especially like the plethora of acronyms that populate the world of instant messaging and e-mail.

This fad was especially popular in Boston newspapers, where it took on a humorous quality. One of the first recorded (or surviving) written examples of this trend can be found in a March 1839 article in the Boston Morning Post, with the line, "... it is hardly necessary to say to those who know Mr. Hughes, that his establishment will be found to be 'A. No. One' [HTML_REMOVED] that is, O.K. [HTML_REMOVED] all correct ..." (as reported by the NPR piece and The American Heritage Dictionary). The heady pun, of course, is that neither the "o" nor the "k" is quite correct.

Although it was probably used long before that, the funny abbreviation caught on. But that's not the end of the story for OK.

Martin Van Buren (1782-1862), one of the founders of the Democratic Party and the eighth president of the United States, was up for re-election in 1840. His campaign adopted OK as a stand-in for "Old Kinderhook," Van Buren's nickname (he was from Kinderhook, N.Y.). Thus, to "make all things O.K.," as a newspaper editorial of the time stated, was to vote for Van Buren.

The catchy slogan didn't work, and Van Buren lost to Whig Party candidate Gen. William Henry Harrison (1773-1841). Van Buren would run unsuccessfully again for president in 1844 and 1848, the last time for the antislavery Free Soil Party, the forerunner of the Republican Party.

OK went on to an eventful career as the quintessential American export word, the mighty heir to "all right." It's OK to use OK around the world, OK?

This being my last word of the season, I want to say that it's been a real joy serving as your etymological guide this quarter, and I look forward to examining more words with you next year. Please send me your word ideas over the break to the email below, Godspeed with finals and Merry Christmas. Until we meet again, cheerio.

[Reach columnist Will Mari at features@thedaily.washington.edu.]