It is my belief that this column . . . is WRONG!! “OK” is not an acronym, but a stupid person’s abbreviation of the word “okay”, which derives from two French words – “au quay”, meaning “to the dock”. This was heard by English speakers when French sailors would be unloading heavy crates from ships. Unfortunately, I can’t cite this for you, because I learnt it in French class, but I’ll try to find some websites or other resources supporting this ASAP.
Welcome to the Straight Dope, purplefeltangel. You may have missed it, but Cecil specifically mentions your etymological interpretation (and calls it “knuckleheaded”, but that’s just his style) in his column:
However, this, and the other proffered explanations he mentions, are spurious. In fact, it appears that Read’s explanation (that “OK” comes from “oll korrect”) is pretty widely accepted; other possible explanations lack supporting documentation.