The origin of "O K"

[creel]

has anybody heard of the term "O K" coming from the list that would have posted of the "Killed" in war battles?

EX: if no one was killed list would have:

0 - K ("K' Being an abbreviation of "killed")

[Justin Runyon]

The most widely purported origin of OK seems to stem from Andrew Jackson's poor spelling and grammar. According to the story, when approving documents Andy would write "Oll Korect" some where on the page, later abbreviating it to O.K.

This is of course supposition, and very possibly folklore. The only shred of some sort of evidence that I know of is that Websters dictionary does in fact credit an abbreviated form of Oll Korrect as the first usage of O.K., though it does not mention Jackson as the original source.

[Pennsylvania Reserves]

It might mean "zero" killed as opposed to seven killed... for example

At the battle of something-or-another, we suffered the following casualties:
0 K
4 W
1 M
0 C

(k. killed, w. wounded, m. missing & c. captured)


Thats my guess.

[Rob]

http://69.20.125.245/classics/a2_250

[paul hadley]

Nice link -- and to think that my teen son thinks his set began the text messaging abbreviations fad!
"NS"
Paul Hadley

[creel]

"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. "

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

[Trooper Graham]

The term 'OK' derived from the term 'OTay' by Buckwheat. :D :D Anyone who believes that, I've got a bridge in Brooklyn for sale. :rolleyes:

[Rob Weaver]

The first time the "0 Killed" legend pops up is after the Great War, and seemed to typify the cheapening of life in that conflict. My bets are on the newspaper abbreviation story. Which, odd as it sounds when you use it, makes it a period expression.

[hanktrent]

The first time the "0 Killed" legend pops up is after the Great War, and seemed to typify the cheapening of life in that conflict.

That makes sense--perfect time for that folk etymology to arise, and long enough after OK was introduced for any real origin to be forgotten.

The first thing that struck me about the "0 killed" origin is that there wasn't any major war going on about the time that "OK" starts appearing in usage. So why would newspaper reports of men killed or not killed be of any interest at that time?

Hank Trent
hanktrent@voyager.net

[Ephraim_Zook]

Much of Rob Griffith's referenced site is word-for-word from the website www.wordorigins.org. There are often very scholarly discussions over there on etymology and I would accept Rob's reference as the definitive word on the origin of OK.

[Major Duane]

...I thought it was a reference to Martin Van Buren..."Old Kinderhook" himself...from Kinderhook, New York. But, I could be wrong... :-)

John Adams
Huckleberry Mess

[Pennsylvania Reserves]

From my understanding, the question below was in relevance to a list of casualties coming from an after action report. Granted the orgin of the "acronym" O.K. may come from Jackson and his "Oll Korect"...but the question was, "0 - K ('K' Being an abbreviation of 'killed')"

Certainly if a commander was stating a list of his killed, he wouldn't put "O - K" as in "Oll Korect" to give a number of his KIA's, if any. Am I to assume "0 - K" (as per the question) in a field report is to mean "Oll Killed"? This of course, is my opinion in response to the question...


has anybody heard of the term "O K" coming from the list that would have posted of the "Killed" in war battles?

EX: if no one was killed list would have:

0 - K ("K' Being an abbreviation of "killed")