# Origin of the word "OK" **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [June 3, 2016, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-word-ok/756398 "2016-06-03T16:04:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2016, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-word-ok/756398/21 "2016-06-05T01:24:00Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Yup, **GuanoLad** , and it’s hotly contested and argued against for OK, too. But all of those contestings and arguments have come to naught. It’s like science that way. Yes, that’s the way I feel in the end. I have to accept it, the evidence for it is strong, and yet I have this underlying discomfort with it because it’s so unlikely. A lot of science is like that for me too, where despite it being bamboozling and weird, scientists know their stuff and I have to trust them. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2016, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-word-ok/756398/22 "2016-06-05T02:38:26Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > Yes, that’s the way I feel in the end. I have to accept it, the evidence for it is strong, and yet I have this underlying discomfort with it because it’s so unlikely. A lot of science is like that for me too, where despite it being bamboozling and weird, scientists know their stuff and I have to trust them. I truly don’t see why you think it “unlikely.” It seems likely to me. All the other proposals are “unlikely” to me. ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2016, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-word-ok/756398/23 "2016-06-05T02:58:29Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > The problem I have with the “Oll Korrect” explanation is that if any other word claimed to be from that kind of origin it would be hotly contested and argued against. There was apparently a fad for that kind of thing for a few years. Basically the equivalent of the spread of Lolspeak a couple of years ago. “Oll Korrect” was the contemporary “I can has?” ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2016, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-word-ok/756398/24 "2016-06-05T03:00:27Z")
> [@samclem](#): > > I truly don’t see why you think it “unlikely.” It seems likely to me. All the other proposals are “unlikely” to me. For this reason: > [@splatterpunk](#): > > There is no such documentation for say, \* Stack High In Transit\*, or _For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge._ It’s the “Port Out Starboard Home” or “Gentlemen Only Ladies Forbidden” kind of explanation that is usually dismissed as nonsense. I always spell out the word as “okay” because the initials don’t feel right to me even though that’s apparently the right way to do it. I’d prefer a more interesting etymological path than a lame joke. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2016, 6:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-word-ok/756398/25 "2016-06-05T06:45:19Z")
The first problem with the acronyms of Stack High In Transit or For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge or Port Out Starboard Home or Gentlemen Only Ladies Forbidden being the etymologies of those words is that there exist more probable origins for the words that the first letters of those phrases spell out: > **[Shit](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shit)** > > Shit is an English-language profanity. As a noun, it refers to fecal matter, and as a verb it means to defecate; in the plural ("the shits"), it means diarrhea. Shite is a common variant in British and Irish English. As a slang term, shit has many meanings, including: nonsense, foolishness, something of little value or quality, trivial and usually boastful or inaccurate talk or a contemptible person. It could also be used to refer to any other noun in general or as an expression of annoyance, > **[Fuck](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuck)** > > Fuck is English-language profanity which often refers to the act of sexual intercourse, but is also commonly used as an intensifier or to convey disdain. While its origin is obscure, it is usually considered to be first attested to around 1475 CE. In modern usage, the term fuck and its derivatives (such as fucker and fucking) are used as a noun, a verb, an adjective, an interjection or an adverb. There are many common phrases that employ the word as well as compounds that incorporate it, such ... [https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/posh](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/posh) > **[golf - Wiktionary](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/golf)** The second problem is that people before about 1910 basically didn’t create words in that way in English. Acronyms were rare in English before that point. In fact, it was World War II that caused the real growth in the use of acronyms. Note that O.K. is not an acronym but an initialism (i.e., the letters are pronounced letter by letter, rather than them being pronounced as the word spelled out by those letters). (Also note that some people use the word “acronym” to mean both kinds of word creation.) One reason that the etymology of “O.K.” as being from “Oll Korrect” is accepted is that there is actually a reference to it in newspapers in 1839. There is no previous use of the term in any source. Reade shows that the term quickly grew after that point. The use of it for “Old Kinderhook” in the election of 1840 probably kept it going, where one might have expected it to die out like the other initialisms created around that time. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-word-ok/756398.md?page=1)