What is the origin of the word OK?
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"OK is a quintessentially American term that has spread from English to many other languages. Its origin was the subject of scholarly debate for many years until Allen Walker Read showed that OK is based on a joke of sorts. OK is first recorded in 1839 but was probably in circulation before that date. During the 1830s there was a humoristic fashion in Boston newspapers to reduce a phrase to initials and supply an explanation in parentheses. Sometimes the abbreviations were misspelled to add to the humor. OK was used in March 1839 as an abbreviation for all correct, the joke being that neither the O nor the K was correct. Originally spelled with periods, this term outlived most similar abbreviations.."
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Some also say it originated from an English band called "Oll Korect", this version of it's origins are also found at dictionary.com.
It's rather comical that a word that it is used so commonly today began as a simple joke. Okay is also a variant of OK, the shorter version actually predates the longer for once.
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It was claimed that it was first use in 1790 by Andre Jackson.
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Earliest documented examples
The earliest claimed usage of okay is a 1790 court record from Sumner County, Tennessee, discovered in 1859 by a Tennessee historian named Albigence Waldo Putnam, in which Andrew Jackson apparently said:
"proved a bill of sale from Hugh McGary to Gasper Mansker, for a Negro man, which was O.K."1
However, the record is hand-written rather than printed, and James Parton's 1860 biography of Jackson2 suggested that it is really a poorly written O.R., which was the abbreviation used for "Ordered Recorded". Woodford Heflin, the staff writer in charge of the "O.K." entry of the Dictionary of American English did a photographic analysis in 19413 which also supports the O.R. interpretation of the inscription.
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information obtain from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Okay
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