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")
The origin of "O K"
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")
Jamey B Creel
CSS Tallahassee Marine Guard
2nd FL Leon Rifles Company D
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.
Last edited by Justin Runyon; 02-08-2007 at 11:41 AM.
Justin Runyon, Pumpkin Patch Mess: WIG GHTI
Organization of American Historians
Company of Military Historians
CWPT, Terre Haute Lodge 19 F&AM
Terre Haute Ch. 11, RAM
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.
Yours most respectfully, your obedient servant,
R. L. ("Rob") Griffiths.
Company "G", 157th N.Y. Vols.
Forum member since November 17th, 2004.
"I am not aware of ever having used a profane expletive in my life, but I would have the charity to excuse those who may have done so, if they were in charge of a train of Mexican pack mules at the time." - U. S. Grant
Nice link -- and to think that my teen son thinks his set began the text messaging abbreviations fad!
"NS"
Paul Hadley
Thank you and in addition:
"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
Jamey B Creel
CSS Tallahassee Marine Guard
2nd FL Leon Rifles Company D
The term 'OK' derived from the term 'OTay' by Buckwheat.
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.
Rob Weaver
Pine River Boys, Co I, 7th Wisconsin
"We're... Christians, what read the Bible and foller what it says about lovin' your enemies and carin' for them what despitefully use you -- that is, after you've downed 'em good and hard."
-Si Klegg and His Pard Shorty
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.Originally Posted by Rob Weaver
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
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.
Ron Myzie
"God gave us two ends - one to sit on and one to think with. Success depends on which one you use. Heads you win, tails you lose."
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