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OK full form: where the word comes from

OK is one of the most used words in the world, and it is unusual among short forms because nobody set out to create it as a serious abbreviation. Dictionaries give its most likely origin as "oll korrect", a joke misspelling of "all correct".

The 1839 story

In the late 1830s, newspapers in Boston in the United States had a fashion for comic abbreviations of deliberately misspelled phrases. "O.K." for "oll korrect" appeared in print in 1839. Most of those jokes were forgotten within months. OK survived, helped by the American presidential election of 1840, in which supporters of Martin Van Buren, nicknamed Old Kinderhook after his home town, formed "O.K. Clubs". The research that traced this history was done by the American scholar Allen Walker Read in the 1960s, and it is the explanation that major dictionaries accept.

Other stories you may hear

You will find many other claims: that OK comes from a Greek phrase, from a Native American word, from a mark made by a railway clerk, or that it stands for "Objection Killed". None of these has the support of the printed evidence that the 1839 origin has. "Objection Killed" in particular is an invention.

OK, O.K., Okay

All three spellings are accepted. "OK" in capitals is the most common in print. "Okay" is a spelled-out form that appeared later. In formal writing, such as an application or an examination answer, it is better to choose another word: "all right", "acceptable" or "approved".

How it is used

OK can show agreement ("OK, I will come"), say that something is acceptable ("the food was OK"), or ask for agreement ("We leave at six, OK?"). As a verb it means to approve: "The principal OK'd the trip."

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