# Is Ok OK now? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 21, 2022, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-ok-ok-now/972001 "2022-09-21T20:17:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Schnitte](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/schnitte/32/9033_2.png) [@Schnitte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Schnitte)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2022, 8:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-ok-ok-now/972001/21 "2022-09-22T08:53:55Z")
I, for one, am firmly in camp OK. I’ve also recently read [this](https://www.amazon.com/-/de/dp/0199892539/ref=sr_1_1?__mk_de_DE=%C3%85M%C3%85%C5%BD%C3%95%C3%91&crid=D7OLZ8FUDGES&keywords=ok+metcalf&qid=1663836753&sprefix=ok+metcal%2Caps%2C406&sr=8-1) book about the history of the word, which I can recommend. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2022, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-ok-ok-now/972001/22 "2022-09-22T14:35:09Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > To me, ok fits in a more informal context. The only time I’ve seen “Ok” is when people are capitalizing it at the beginning of a sentence. ⁢ More specifically, I’m pretty sure it gets capitalized automatically by the texting software (as texting is the main places where I see people write “ok.”) ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2022, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-ok-ok-now/972001/23 "2022-09-22T14:53:14Z")
“m’kay?” is definitely not OK. ---
**Author:** ![Greg\_Charles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/839c29/32.png) [@Greg\_Charles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Greg_Charles)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2022, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-ok-ok-now/972001/24 "2022-09-22T19:53:06Z")
Informal places for sure, but also more frequently in OK buttons in web apps. ---
**Author:** ![Greg\_Charles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/839c29/32.png) [@Greg\_Charles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Greg_Charles)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2022, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-ok-ok-now/972001/25 "2022-09-22T19:58:49Z")
Interesting. I think I see “okay” the least frequently of all of those, except probably “O.K.” Also, “kind of old”? Is that supposed to be pejorative? Anyway, I doubt “OK/O.K.” is that much older than “okay”, and neither is as old as “kind”, “of”, or “old”. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2022, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-ok-ok-now/972001/26 "2022-09-22T20:21:05Z")
> [@jnglmassiv](#): > > And the less said about 0k, the better. That’s the weight of a photon. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2022, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-ok-ok-now/972001/27 "2022-09-22T20:38:09Z")
> [@Greg\_Charles](#): > > Informal places for sure, but also more frequently in OK buttons in web apps. Well, if numbers of web app makers are using Ok, I’d say that indicates its acceptance in colloquial usage. The question is then what are the numbers? 2? 10? 200? > [@Jackmannii](#): > > “m’kay?” is definitely not OK. “M’kay” is New England dialect as represented in print, and is much older than South Park. Alice Tilton’s 1940s detective Leonidas Witherall regularly used “m’kay” as a marker of his heritage, e.g. She wasn’t alone in having Bostonians say this, and some English did as well. > [@Monty](#): > > No matter the context, whenever I see _OK_, I always read it initially as _Oklahmoa_. Rodgers and Hammerstein are turning over in their garves. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2022, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-ok-ok-now/972001/28 "2022-09-22T20:57:13Z")
> [@Hari\_Seldon](#): > > > [@jnglmassiv](#): > > > > And the less said about 0k, the better. > > That’s the weight of a photon. But not the temperature. ---
**Author:** ![jnglmassiv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f07891/32.png) [@jnglmassiv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jnglmassiv)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2022, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-ok-ok-now/972001/29 "2022-09-22T21:24:34Z")
> [@Hari\_Seldon](#): > > That’s the weight of a photon. It’s also the gold content of a photon. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2022, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-ok-ok-now/972001/30 "2022-09-22T21:28:41Z")
My techie wonk friend says that (for texting, etc) “k” is rude, and “OK” is marginal, so she says use “kk” or “okay”. I never used “k” but still, I try and use “okay” or sometimes “A-OK!”. ---
**Author:** ![ekedolphin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ekedolphin/32/10003_2.png) [@ekedolphin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ekedolphin)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2022, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-ok-ok-now/972001/31 "2022-09-22T21:41:18Z")
I go with “okee” myself. ---
**Author:** ![WildaBeast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wildabeast/32/6_2.png) [@WildaBeast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WildaBeast)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2022, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-ok-ok-now/972001/32 "2022-09-22T22:02:54Z")
> [@cochrane](#): > > OK was a short-lived soda marketed by the Coca-Cola company in 1994. And for many decades, going all the way back to the mid-1920s, the used car section at Chevy dealerships was branded as “OK Used Cars”. It was sort of a precursor to the modern “Certified Pre-owned” concept. > **[MotorCities - OK Used Cars Were a Part of Our American History | 2018 | Story...](https://www.motorcities.org/story-of-the-week/2018/ok-used-cars-were-a-part-of-our-american-history)** > > By Robert Tate, Automotive Historian and ResearcherImages from the web and Robert Tate's CollectionPublished 08.29.2018 An OK Used Cars Lot For many of us who grew up during the 1960s, we have fond memories of the automotive advertising symbol “OK... Which really illustrates how the meaning of “ok” has evolved from meaning “there are no problems” to meaning essentially “mediocre” in some contexts. I’m sure GM was using the former meaning (I suspect the other meaning didn’t exist back then). But I have to admit when I see “OK Used Cars” today I tend to think “I don’t want as used car that just ‘ok’”. In fact there’s some ad campaign, I don’t remember what it’s for, with the tag line “Don’t settle for ‘just ok’”. > [@DrDeth](#): > > My techie wonk friend says that (for texting, etc) “k” is rude, and “OK” is marginal, so she says use “kk” or “okay”. Whenever I’m texting, if I type “ok” more often than not autocomplete changes it to “okay”. So I just go with it. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2022, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-ok-ok-now/972001/33 "2022-09-22T22:36:14Z")
> [@ekedolphin](#): > > I go with “okee” myself. Okee-dokee, Pokey. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2022, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-ok-ok-now/972001/34 "2022-09-22T23:29:10Z")
> **[The Difference Between Texting K, OK and Kk, Explained](https://www.insidehook.com/article/advice/the-difference-between-texting-k-ok-kk-explained)** > > One means OK. Another means "I hope you die in a fire." Holy shit. ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2022, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-ok-ok-now/972001/35 "2022-09-22T23:50:13Z")
Damn typos! 😁 ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2022, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-ok-ok-now/972001/36 "2022-09-23T01:16:55Z")
Wow, so she was totally right. Good to know. Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2022, 7:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-ok-ok-now/972001/37 "2022-09-23T07:54:54Z")
Something about that article bugged me. It seems to anticipated that its readers won’t believe them. That suggests that the trend is not quite as widespread as they indicate. I suspect that this is just true among young people on the forefront of texting slang. I find that people aren’t as judgemental as these types of overeager posts seem to indicate. No kid expects adults to use their slang properly, for example. ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2022, 8:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-ok-ok-now/972001/38 "2022-09-23T08:20:40Z")
> [@Hari\_Seldon](#): > > > [@jnglmassiv](#): > > > > And the less said about 0k, the better. > > That’s the weight of a photon. It’s also just slightly less memory than that of a Commodore VIC-20. ---
**Author:** ![MrAtoz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@MrAtoz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrAtoz)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2022, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-ok-ok-now/972001/39 "2022-09-23T12:36:18Z")
Where the hell did “kk” come from, and how is it an acceptable substitute for “ok”? That’s just downright weird. ---
**Author:** ![stretch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a6a055/32.png) [@stretch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stretch)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2022, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-ok-ok-now/972001/40 "2022-09-23T13:41:39Z")
I’ve used kk (or okay) forever but it’s likely because I text with my kids and grandkids. I find it hard to believe I’m doing this right, but woohoo! I also use fewer periods when texting. Man, that’s hard for me. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-ok-ok-now/972001.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-ok-ok-now/972001.md?page=3)