The Eternal Fascination of OK -Anatoly Liberman [Oxford University Press Blog]
The war in heaven (for linguists, anyway) rages on . A signifigant helping of hoo ha viz ok surrounds the pre -1839 existence of the phrase.
Linguist Allen Walker Read, who had written four major articles on OK for American Speech, and had been interviewed on the subject by the New Yorker, no less, cites The journal of Boston businessman William Richardson who describes a journey to New Orleans in 1815 allegedly thus; “Arrived in Princeton, a handsome little village, 15 miles from N Brunswick, ok & at Trenton, where we dined at 1 P.M.”
The author of this article rightly mentions that this makes no godamn sense and then cites Frederic C. Cassidy (American Speech 56, 1981, p. 271) who had tracked down the actual diary and found it to be "not ok"
It seems that every major linguist who tackles the subject moulds a major portion of their thesis out of bullshit and heresay and then feigns being non- plussed that this hasn't yet occurred to anyone.......
It hasn't occured to anyone because of the difficulty of discovery of shit you just made up, you stupid fucking linguist.
I much prefer the portmanteau Yiddish expression "Nu?" or the equally expressive Jamaican "Seen?" to using OK (at least in the interrogative) . Why? Become pretentious like me , and then we'll both know, OK?
OK Soda
What does "OK" stand for? [The Straight Dope]
The OK Corral
Definition that's probably not OK
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