Which story best matches the documented origin of "OK"?
Bonus: can you name when and where it first appeared?
OMG, it's 1839.
Most of us have used LOL or OMG by now. Long before that, young people were already shortening phrases, misspelling them on purpose, and turning the results into slang. Almost all of those jokes have vanished, except one. Somehow it escaped print and traveled the globe, becoming one of the most recognizable words in many languages.
OK was never an only child. That same era of abbreviation madness made a slew of siblings, but few lasted two centuries.
Q1. What other abbreviation from the same era meant "all right"?
Q2. What invention helped OK stay alive and spread, since its two letters were a handy way to confirm a message came through?
Those two little letters were remarkably good at long-distance travel. OK turned up in literature, on telegraph wires, across the Wild West, in the space race, and in places English was never spoken.
Q3. After Alan Shepard's 1961 Freedom 7 flight, the press tied the phrase "A-OK" to him. Who actually used it publicly while reporting the mission?
Q4. The gunfight that made the O.K. Corral famous lasted about how long?
Q6. In 1984, which movie was the first released under the brand new PG-13 rating?
Q7. An early edition of Little Women held one of the first literary appearances of the spelled-out "okay." What happened in the later 1880 edition?
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Q1. B. O.W. for "oll wright." The period also gave us "K.G." for "know go." Most of these vanished. OK had better marketing, and just as the trend should have faded, a newer technology arrived that loved short messages. Q2. B. The telegraph. As networks spread in the 1800s, short messages were prized, and OK became a quick way to say a transmission was received. A newspaper's little joke found a full-time job. Q3. C. NASA spokesperson John "Shorty" Powers. Shepard did not say "A-OK" on the flight tapes. Powers, the voice of Mercury Control, used it describing Shepard's condition. NASA's engineers had been saying "A-OK" well before the launch. Q4. D. About 30 seconds. On October 26, 1881, the Earps and Doc Holliday faced the Clanton-McLaury group in Tombstone, Arizona. More than 30 shots, three men dead, and one of the most famous gunfights in the West was over in under a minute. Q5. B. Jamaica. Within about eight years of its first Boston appearance, OK had crossed the ocean. Later it turned up in India, Greece, England, and much farther. Q6. C. Red Dawn. The Flamingo Kid was actually rated PG-13 first, but its release was delayed, so Red Dawn reached theaters first. Q7. C. It was replaced with "cozy." Louisa May Alcott was an early adopter of "okay": in the 1868-69 edition, Amy talks about making "everything okay all around." By the 1880 edition, okay was gone and "cozy" stood in its place. |
