The term “OK” has a fascinating and complex origin in the history of language.
Few people know that OK – a misspelled abbreviation among the youth of Boston (USA) back in the day accidentally created the most popular word in the world today.
The term OK actually originated from a deliberate misspelling trend in the 1830s.
OK actually originated from a deliberate misspelling trend in the 1830s. Young “intellectuals” in Boston sent trendy coded messages like KC, or “knuff ced”, KY, “know yuse” and OW, “oll wright”, OK, or “oll korreg”.
On March 23, 1839, the phrase “OK” was officially recognized in the Boston Morning Post. From that point on, a myriad of newspapers began using “OK,” and it became widespread across the United States.
Even the 8th President of the United States, Martin Van Buren, used the term “OK” as a slogan for his re-election campaign in 1841. Born in the town of Kinderhook in New York, President Buren used the slogan: “Old Kinderhook was ‘oll korrect’.”
While other abbreviations from the elite Boston class gradually faded over time, “OK” thrived, especially after the invention of the telegraph in 1844, just five years after the press began using the term “OK.” It transmitted short messages in the form of electric pulses, using combinations of dots and dashes to represent letters in the alphabet.
This was the moment when OK shone. The two letters are very easy to type and are difficult to confuse with anything else. In fact, a telegraph guide issued in 1865 even stipulated that “no message shall be considered transmitted until the receiving office gives an OK.”
Additionally, another reason for the popularity of OK is due to the shape and sound of the letter K. The letter K in English is quite uncommon – it ranks 22nd in the alphabet. This rarity spurred the “Kraze for K” movement in advertising and printing, where companies replaced the hard C with K to attract attention, such as Krispy Kreme and Kool-Aid. It is the letter K that makes it memorable.
