September 23, 2004

• One of my biggest pet peeves is the spelling of "OK". I seriously dislike reading a book, or a sentence of some kind and having the flow disrupted by the capital letters OK. It jars me out of whatever reality the author has placed me in and forces me to realize that I'm not in this book, I'm Katie, sitting here reading a book.

  
  

  I prefer to use "okay", which is not a common spelling of the word, but to me it seems more correct. Now, while pondering this, I decided to venture to dictionary.com to see if I couldn't find the reason behind the annoying "OK," and here is what I found.

  
  

  
  

  Word History: OK is a quintessentially American term that has spread from English to many other languages. Its origin was the subject of scholarly debate for many years until Allen Walker Read showed that OK is based on a joke of sorts. OK is first recorded in 1839 but was probably in circulation before that date. During the 1830s there was a humoristic fashion in Boston newspapers to reduce a phrase to initials and supply an explanation in parentheses. Sometimes the abbreviations were misspelled to add to the humor. OK was used in March 1839 as an abbreviation for all correct, the joke being that neither the O nor the K was correct. Originally spelled with periods, this term outlived most similar abbreviations owing to its use in President Martin Van Buren's 1840 campaign for reelection. Because he was born in Kinderhook, New York, Van Buren was nicknamed Old Kinderhook, and the abbreviation proved eminently suitable for political slogans. That same year, an editorial referring to the receipt of a pin with the slogan O.K. had this comment: “frightful letters... significant of the birth-place of Martin Van Buren, old Kinderhook, as also the rallying word of the Democracy of the late election, ‘all correct’.... Those who wear them should bear in mind that it will require their most strenuous exertions... to make all things O.K.”

  
  

  In conclusion, it really doesn't matter what its origin may be because it still bugs the hell out of me. The End.

  • 5:02 pm
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