[lazarus] A question about (OK) !!

[Michael A. Hess]

christer.t.johansson at se.abb.com wrote:
> 
> Does anyone know what OK stand for ?
> ,that is, what it came from in the beginning ??

As found in the 'American Heritage Dictionary of the English Lanugage'

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. Sometime the abbreviations were misspelled
to add 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
refering 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."

-- 
==== Programming my first best destiny! ====

Michael A. Hess      Miracle Concepts, Inc.
mhess at miraclec.com   http://www.miraclec.com