WEBVTT - Where Did the Word 'OK' Come From?

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeartRadio, Hey brain Stuff

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<v Speaker 1>Lauren Vogelbaum here, the word okay is probably the most

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<v Speaker 1>spoken word in the world. Even outside of its originator English,

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<v Speaker 1>people say okay in some dozen languages, including Spanish, Italian,

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<v Speaker 1>and Russian. But where did it come from? And how

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<v Speaker 1>do you spell it? That second one is easy. Most

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<v Speaker 1>dictionaries have accepted that people vacillate among the two letter

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<v Speaker 1>okay and the four letter okay and say that either

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<v Speaker 1>are well okay. But as to its origins, there are

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<v Speaker 1>a lot of myths. Some say it was borrowed from

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<v Speaker 1>a Choctaw word okay. Others suggest it originated with the

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<v Speaker 1>Boston baker named Otto Kimmel, who liked to frost his

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<v Speaker 1>initials into his biscuits. Couldn't have had anything to do

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<v Speaker 1>with the state of Oklahoma abbreviated oak or the musical Oklahoma, Nope, Nope,

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<v Speaker 1>and nope. For the article, this episode is based on

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<v Speaker 1>How Stuffworks, spoke the Anatoly Lieberman, a linguist, translator and

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<v Speaker 1>language professor at the University of Minnesota. He said, okay

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<v Speaker 1>is the greatest American word. The history of okay is

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<v Speaker 1>a history of incredible success. But nobody could have predicted

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<v Speaker 1>that success. As you'll see, okay began as a piece

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<v Speaker 1>of insider slang from the late eighteen thirties and wrote

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<v Speaker 1>a losing presidential campaign to nationwide fame and eventually worldwide ubiquity.

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<v Speaker 1>But let's start at the beginning. In the early eighteen hundreds,

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<v Speaker 1>new printing technologies dramatically reduced the cost of publishing newspapers,

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<v Speaker 1>and there was a resulting explosion of inexpensive new daily

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<v Speaker 1>periodicals known collectively as the penny press, competing for readers.

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<v Speaker 1>Penny papers and cities like New York, Philadelphia in Boston

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<v Speaker 1>published not only straight news stories, but also witty takes

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<v Speaker 1>on the latest political scandals, social scenes, and popular trends.

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<v Speaker 1>Think of it as the Internet of the eighteen thirties,

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<v Speaker 1>and much like the Internet, the lively back and forth

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<v Speaker 1>chatter between penny paper editors gave birth to new ways

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<v Speaker 1>of writing and eventually new ways of speaking. Famed etymologist

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<v Speaker 1>Alan Walker Reid worked on and off for some twenty

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<v Speaker 1>years to trace the full history of the word okay

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<v Speaker 1>back in the middle of the nineteen hundreds. A note

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<v Speaker 1>that this was decades before digitized newspaper archives were keyword searchable.

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<v Speaker 1>Lieberman said Reid must have spent hundreds of hours digging

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<v Speaker 1>through tons and tons of physical newspapers, journals, private letters,

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<v Speaker 1>and other documents. In a research paper published in nineteen

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<v Speaker 1>sixty three in the journal American Speech, Reid explained that

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<v Speaker 1>the road to Okay began in the summer of eighteen

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<v Speaker 1>thirty eight in Boston. There there developed what he called

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<v Speaker 1>a remarkable vogue that might well be called a craze

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<v Speaker 1>of using abbreviations a Boston's Morning Post used in June

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<v Speaker 1>and July of that year comically complicated acronyms for anything

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<v Speaker 1>and everything. For example, RTBS for remains to be seen,

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<v Speaker 1>dl ec for do let them come, and GTDHD for

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<v Speaker 1>give the devil his due, the last of which editor

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<v Speaker 1>Charles Gordon Green was obligated to explain a few days later,

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<v Speaker 1>after having received several letters from confounded readers. By nineteen

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<v Speaker 1>thirty nine, the initial language, as it was sometimes called,

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<v Speaker 1>had arrived in New York City and had already leapt

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<v Speaker 1>from print to fashionable slang. The editors of New York's

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<v Speaker 1>Even Tattler wrote, this is a species of spoken shorthand,

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<v Speaker 1>which is getting into very general use among loafers and

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<v Speaker 1>gentlemen of the fancy. They claimed to have overheard a

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<v Speaker 1>conversation between two young sweethearts where the girl turned to

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<v Speaker 1>her bow and said OKKBWP, which they speculated could have

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<v Speaker 1>meant nothing but one kind kiss before we part. This

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<v Speaker 1>all reminds me of how modern text and chat abbreviations

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<v Speaker 1>have made their way into verbal vernacular. Perhaps you've heard

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<v Speaker 1>someone dryly end an unfunny sentence with lol. And another

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<v Speaker 1>thing that Internet users have sometimes shared with nineteenth century Americans,

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<v Speaker 1>some thought it was really funny to purposefully misspell stuff.

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<v Speaker 1>This reminds me of the way that we modernly might

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<v Speaker 1>caption a photo or video of a cat or dog

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<v Speaker 1>when it's supposed to be written in the animal's voice,

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<v Speaker 1>or how we use misspellings to denote regional accents. Note

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<v Speaker 1>that this kind of humor at its worst can be

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<v Speaker 1>pretty meanly classist, punching down at those of us humans

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<v Speaker 1>who have had less access to education. Tried not to

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<v Speaker 1>do that, but at any rate, By the late eighteen thirties,

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<v Speaker 1>the misspelling trend had combined with the acronym trend to

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<v Speaker 1>produce punchy abbreviations like ky for no use as if

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<v Speaker 1>it were spelled knowyus, or OW for all right as

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<v Speaker 1>if it were spelled oll wright. Absolutely, no one says

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<v Speaker 1>ky or ow anymore, But believe it or not, that

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<v Speaker 1>wordplay laid the groundwork for the arrival of the two

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<v Speaker 1>letter abbreviation that would conquer the world. In the spring

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<v Speaker 1>of eighteen thirty nine, Charles Gordon Green, the editor of

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<v Speaker 1>Boston's Morning Post, was engaged in some good natured trash

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<v Speaker 1>talk with the editors of the Providence Journal in Rhode Island.

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<v Speaker 1>It had to do with a semi satirical citizens group

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<v Speaker 1>in Boston called the Anti Bell Ringing Society or ABRs,

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<v Speaker 1>of which Green was a member. Providence Paper poked fun

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<v Speaker 1>at Green and the ABRs, and Green had to set

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<v Speaker 1>the record straight. So it was that on March twenty

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<v Speaker 1>first of eighteen thirty nine, at the end of a

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<v Speaker 1>short paragraph defending the ABRs, Green coined the acronym OKA,

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<v Speaker 1>meaning all correct, similar to using OW for all right.

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<v Speaker 1>Green had coined this new misspelled acronym okay for olll

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<v Speaker 1>krr ect. Three days after Green introduced Oka to the world,

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<v Speaker 1>the Providence Journal editors responded with an ok of their own.

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<v Speaker 1>Alike other offbeat acronyms of the day, okay was an

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<v Speaker 1>inside joke randomly thrust into general circulation. But unlike ow,

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<v Speaker 1>which enjoyed brief popularity in the eighteen thirties, okay didn't

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<v Speaker 1>die out. And that's thanks to Martin Van Buren, the

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<v Speaker 1>eighth President of the United States, held from the small

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<v Speaker 1>town of Kinderhook, New York. Similar to his mentor and

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<v Speaker 1>fellow Democrat Andrew Jackson, who was known as Old Hickory,

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<v Speaker 1>Van Buren's nickname was Old Kinderhook. In the eighteen forty

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<v Speaker 1>presidential election, William Henry Harrison and the Whig Party challenged

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<v Speaker 1>the incumbent Van Buren. Harrison supporters came up with the

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<v Speaker 1>Ketchee for its time campaign slogan and song Tipper Canoe

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<v Speaker 1>and Tyler III. The Democrats swung back with the slogan

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<v Speaker 1>of their own, Okay is okay, as in Old Kinderhook

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<v Speaker 1>is All correct. Clubs sprung up in early eighteen forty

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<v Speaker 1>that spread the slogan, making the word okay part of

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<v Speaker 1>mainstream political conversation. Van Buren lost badly, but okay definitely

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<v Speaker 1>won After eighteen forty, the word spread like wildfire and

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<v Speaker 1>never looked back. Originally, okay appeared in documents and telegraph messages,

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<v Speaker 1>which may count for its international spread, but not in

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<v Speaker 1>everyday speech, as it was slangy, but that changed over time.

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<v Speaker 1>Back in twenty twelve, a linguist Alan Metcalf published a

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<v Speaker 1>book called Okay, The Improbable Story of America's Greatest Word.

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<v Speaker 1>In an article for BBC Magazine the previous year, he

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<v Speaker 1>speculated as to why okay became popular all over the world.

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<v Speaker 1>He wrote, It's not that it was needed to fill

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<v Speaker 1>a gap in any language. Before eighteen thirty nine, English

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<v Speaker 1>speakers had yes, good, fine, excellent, satisfactory, and all right.

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<v Speaker 1>What okay provided that the others did not was neutrality,

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<v Speaker 1>a way to affirm or to express agreement without having

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<v Speaker 1>to offer an opinion. Okay allows us to view a

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<v Speaker 1>situation in simplest terms, just okay or not, which sounds

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<v Speaker 1>pretty okay to us. Today's episode is based on the

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<v Speaker 1>article Made in America, The Ridiculous History of Okay on

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<v Speaker 1>HowStuffWorks dot com, written by Dave Ruse. Brain Stuff is

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<v Speaker 1>production of iHeartRadio in partnership with HowStuffWorks dot com and

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<v Speaker 1>is produced by Tyler Klang. For more podcasts My Heart Radio,

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<v Speaker 1>visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen

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<v Speaker 1>to your favorite shows.