The Fascinating History of the Word “OK”
The 19th-century craze that ended up having a place in our present-day dictionaries
The history of the word “OK” traces back to a fad of the early 1800s wherein young teenagers and college students in Boston began intentionally misspelling the word “all correct” as “oll korrect” for the fun of it.
Little did these kids know that their facile play would be instrumental in creating a word that would go on to transcend the barriers of different languages and become a globally accepted word.
Quick as a wink, the abbreviation of the word, “OK” followed in. However, unlike its original source, the abbreviation “OK” did not just remain in usage amongst the youngsters. Its use spread into the community of educated officegoers that included the likes of professors, lawyers, and doctors of Boston. The same happened with the individuals employed in traditional occupations like butchers, farmers, clock-smiths, and barbers.
Furthermore, the term “OK” came in as a significant gamechanger for the dock supervisors working in the Boston seaport, one of the major ports back then. Earlier, they were meant to chalk out the term “All Good” on the crates that passed their quality checks which they now replaced with a mere “OK”. It did not take long for the dock…
