Where does the word okay come from?

Answer 1

According to wikipedia:

The historical record shows in a letter dated July 7, 1820 from Thomas Jefferson to Peter S. DuPonceau, Esq, Jefferson shared vocabulary he obtained of the Nottoway (Cheroenhaka) Indian tribe native to (now) Southampton County Virginia (originally Nottoway and Sussex Counties). The word for "yes" is "Ho-Keh". Because the origin of this phonetic "okay" is primarily American, it can be concluded that early Virginia settlers used this simple response in common communication of the 1600's with their Nottoway (Cheroenhaka) Indian neighbors in the 17th and 18th centuries leading to its common use in Colonial Virginia and expanding from there to the world. These vocabulary words sent by Jefferson were analyzed by Esquire DuPonceau in his reply letter to Jefferson of July 12, 1820, as a branch of the general language of the Powhatan's similar to the Iroquoian dialect language. A Petersburg Virginia newspaper article (The Nottoway Indians) of March 17, 1820 mentions Queen Edie Turner as the keeper of this early American language, saved by Jefferson for posterity.

The historical record shows that O.K. appeared as an abbreviation for "oll korrect" (a conscious misspelling of "all correct") in Boston newspapers in 1839, and was reinterpreted as "Old Kinderhook" in the 1840 United States presidential election. Because it is a recent word born of word play, and because it is so widely used, O.K. has also invited many folk etymologies. These competing theories are not supported by the historical written record, except in that folk and joke etymologies influenced the true history of the word. Since the 19th century, the word has spread around the world, the okay spelling of it first appearing in British writing in the 1860s. Spelled out in full in the 20th century, 'okay' has come to be in everyday use among English speakers, and borrowed by non-English speakers.

Answer 2

The word OK is reported to have arisen during the American Civil War, when the armies wrote in a blackboard, at the end of a battle day, the casualties they had suffered. It was written in the following way: [number of people] K (K for "killed").

Therefore, OK means "0 [people] killed", undoubtedly a synonym of a good day, or a controlled situation.

That could be one of the things, but I believe OK started way before that. OK means something like this:

1839, only Survivor of a slang fad in Boston and New York c.1838-9 for abbreviations of common phrases with deliberate, jocular misspellings (cf. K.G. for "no go," as if spelled "know go"); in this case, "oll korrect." Further popularized by use as an election slogan by the O.K. Club, New York boosters of Democratic president Martin Van Buren's 1840 re-election bid, in allusion to his nickname Old Kinderhook, from his birth in the N.Y. village of Kinderhook. Van Buren lost, the word stuck, in part because it filled a need for a quick way to write an approval on a document, bill, etc. The noun is first attested 1841; the verb 1888. Spelled out as okeh, 1919, by Woodrow Wilson, on assumption that it represented Choctaw okeh "it is so" (a theory which lacks historical documentation); this was ousted quickly by okay after the appearance of that form in 1929. Okey-doke is student slang first attested 1932. Greek immigrants to America who returned home early 20c. having picked up U.S. speech mannerisms were known in Greece as okay-boys, among other things.

H.L. Mencken once described "O.K." as "the most successful of Americanisms," an estimation verified by U.S. troops during the Second World War, who reported encountering the phrase all over the world. Of all the scores of theories (and sub-theories) as to the origin of "O.K.," the most widely heard traces "O.K." to the "O.K. Club," a political committee supporting Martin Van Buren's unsuccessful bid for the Presidency in 1840. The "O.K.," it is said, was short for "Old Kinderhook," Van Buren's nickname.

It appears that this theory is not so much wrong (the "O.K. Club" certainly existed) as it is incomplete. Chances are good the Van Buren's partisans would never have named their club "O.K." had the phrase not already been widely known as an abbreviation of "oll korrect," a humorous misspelling of "all correct." American speech in the early 1800s was awash in similar abbreviations, two of which, "N.G." ("no good") and "P.D.Q." ("Pretty Damn Quick"), are still heard today.

Ironically, while "O.K." didn't save Van Buren's campaign, the campaign gave "O.K." a new lease on life -- until then, it had never been as popular as a competing phrase, "O.W." (for "oll wright"). (By the way, before we start feeling too superior to the cornball 1800s, is "oll wright" really any worse than the "excuuuse me!" or "not!" fads of a few years ago?).

OK is without doubt the best-known and widest-travelled Americanism, used and recognised even by people who hardly know another word of English. Running in parallel with its popularity have been many attempts to explain where it came from - amateur etymologists have been obsessed with OK and theories have bred unchecked for the past 150 years.

Suggestions abound of introductions from another language, including the one you mention. Others include: from the Choctaw-Chickasaw okah meaning "it is indeed"; from a mishearing of the Scots och aye! (or perhaps Ulster Scots Ough aye!), "yes, indeed!"; from West African languages like Mandingo (O ke, "certainly") or Wolof (waw kay, "yes indeed"); from Finnish oikea, "correct, exact"; from French au quais, "at the quay" (supposedly stencilled on Puerto Rican rum specially selected for export, or a place of assignation for French sailors in the Caribbean); or from French Aux Cayes (a port in Haiti famous for its superior rum). Such accidentally coincidental forms across languages are surprisingly common and all of these are certainly false. Many African-Americans would be delighted to have it proved that OK is actually from an African language brought to America by slaves, but the evidence is against them, as we shall shortly learn.

It is not known for sure. The first recorded use of it in print is listed as 1839 in the Oxford English Dictionary. In this use it is shortened from "all correct." It was used in 1840 as part of an election slogan for Old Kinderhook. However, it seems clear that it was being used orally prior to this. Some suggest it comes from the Choctaw word oke, meaning "it is." Others suggest it comes from the French au quai. Still others contend it comes from a West African language that slaves from that region used. It is one of the few words rather universally understood in all languages.

It derives fromthe Greek "Ola Kala" - all is alright, everything is well.

The origin of the term OK was the subject of scholarly debate for many years. A wide variety of etymologies have been proposed but none of them has been unanimously agreed upon. In fact, most are generally agreed to be unlikely. The American etymolgist Allen Walker Read came up with the most logical and agreed upon theory. He claimed 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."

Answer 3

there are a lot of theories about it but the mostly mentioned ones are; first: it comes from the word "oll korrect" and used in previous times. and second, there was a man called Old Kinderhood, he was a political man, in New York City and they used this OK in their elections.

actually the most clear explanations exist in wikipedia :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Okay

Answer 4

It derives from All Systems are Okay (1960s). But the origin of the word "Okay" is still in debate.

"There have been numerous attempts to explain the emergence of this expression, which seems to have swept into popular use in the US during the mid-19th century. Most of them are purespeculation. It does not seem at all likely, from the linguistic and historical evidence, that it comes from the Scots expression och aye, the Greek ola kala ('it is good'), the Choctaw Indian oke orokeh('it is so'), the French aux Cayes ('from Cayes', a port in Haiti with a reputation for good rum) or au quai ('to the quay', as supposedly used by French-speaking dockers), or the initials of a railway freight agent called Obediah Kelly who is said to have written them on documents he had checked.

A more likely explanation is that the term originated as an abbreviation of orl korrekt , a jokey misspelling of 'all correct' which was current in the US in the 1830s. The oldest written referencesresult from its use as a slogan by the Democratic party during the American Presidential election of 1840. Their candidate, President Martin Van Buren, was nicknamed 'Old Kinderhook' (after his birthplace in New York State), and his supporters formed the 'OK Club'. This undoubtedly helped to popularize the term (though it did not get President Van Buren re-elected).

The only other theory with at least a degree of plausibility is that the term originated among Black slaves of West African origin, and represents a word meaning 'all right, yes indeed' in various West African languages. Unfortunately, historical evidence enabling the origin of this expression to be finally and firmly established may be hard to unearth."

via Oxford Dictionaries' website

Answer 5

initials of a facetious folk phonetic spelling, e.g., oll or orl korrect representing all correct, first attested in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1839, then used in 1840 by Democrat partisans of Martin Van Buren during his election campaign, who allegedly named their organization, the O.K. Club, in allusion to the initials of Old Kinderhook, Van Buren's nickname, derived from his birthplace Kinderhook, New York