“O.K.” America’s Greatest Gift to the World

175-Years Old Today

It was 175 years ago this Sunday that two little letters were first linked together in a simple abbreviation—OK. Thanks in part to its adoption in the 1840 presidential campaign, what began as a lame joke in a Boston newspaper morphed into one of the most ubiquitous expressions in the English language. Read more…

 

“OK” is one of the most frequently used and recognised words in the world. It is also one of the oddest expressions ever invented. But this oddity may in large measure account for its popularity. We generally spell it OK – the spelling okay is relatively recent, and still relatively rare – and we pronounce it not “ock” but by sounding the names of the letters O and K. From BBC News Continue reading

 

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