gam@amdahl.UUCP (G A Moffett) (06/19/85)
[ I found the book; you see, I just moved, and there are all these
boxes of books ... ]
OK, the true factual story is: 'OK' is from
"oll korrect", which was a cutely misspelled and abbreviated
fad word of 1838. It was later associated with politics:
Durring the rest of that presidential campaign year of
1840 "oll korrect" and OK became Democratic rallying cries
strongly reinforced by the fact that Democratic president
and candidate for reelection, Martin Van Buren was called
"Old Kinderhook" (as well as "the Kinderhook Fox/Sage/Wizzard")
-- he was from Kinderhook, NY. Supportings of the Whig
candidate, William Hendy Harrison, countered by reminding the
public that Van Buren had been Andrew Jackson's hand-picked
successor and spread the story that 'OK' had been Jackson's
uneducated way of abbreviating "all correct." But
"Old Kinderhook" and Jackson's misspellings were all stories
spread after the fact -- OK is from "oll korrect", a humorous
Boston use of 1838.
from "I Hear America Talking" by Steward Berg Flexner (1976)
Now, would someone post what the OED has to say, and we can be
done with it.
So there you have it. Hopefully the net will be a lot quieter now.
--
Gordon A. Moffett ...!{ihnp4,cbosgd,sun}!amdahl!gam