78 lines
3.7 KiB
Plaintext
78 lines
3.7 KiB
Plaintext
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
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Path: dog.ee.lbl.gov!tennyson.lbl.gov!twcaps
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>From: twcaps@tennyson.lbl.gov (Terry Chan)
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Subject: Sheesh! Okay Already!
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Organization: Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, Berkeley
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References: <17801@darkstar.ucsc.edu> <1991Jul11.153240.2593@aus.intel.com> <16682@exodus.Eng.Sun.COM> <1991Jul12.161737.2014@dcs.glasgow.ac.uk> <phil.679539733@adam.adelaide.edu.au>
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Message-ID: <15357@dog.ee.lbl.gov>
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X-Local-Date: Mon, 15 Jul 91 16:48:13 PDT
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Reply-To: twcaps@tennyson.lbl.gov (Terry Chan)
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Date: Mon, 15 Jul 91 23:48:12 GMT
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Well folks, Cecil does a fairly decent job on the origins of "okay" in
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the second book. He notes that Eric Partridge in _Origins_ (pub. 1983)
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says "OK" derives from the OK Club, which supported Martin "Old Kinderhook"
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van Buren in 1840. But this is only 0.5 of the story.
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William and Mary Morris in the _Morris Dictionary of Word and Phrase
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Origins_ (1977) mentions the OK Club and also several other theories
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(there's a good one about Haiti). But, Allen Walker Read wrote a series
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of articles in the journal _American Speech_ in 1963 and 1964 which he
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cites as best delineated. The letters of OK stand for "oll korrect" and
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are the result of a fad for comical abbreviations that fluorished in the
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1830s and 1840s (Cece mentions that Read cited "hundreds of citations"
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to support his argument).
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Cecil goes on to mention some interesting abbreviations in passing
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(e.g., NG, "no go") and that exaggerated misspellings were a basic
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tool of humorists in those days (vestiges of this practice are still
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found in certain, esoteric areas, such as USENET). He notes that OK
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was first found in print in Boston in 1839, but really took off when
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van Buren was running for President. Other folks have mentioned Andrew
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Jackson in connection (or connexion) with this thread. Cecil notes
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that van Burens' opponents tried to use OK against van Buren by saying
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that it originated with VG's allegedly illegitimate predecessor, Jackson,
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"a story that still survives to this day". His enemies also went to
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derive other interpretations (e.g., "Out of Kash", "Out of Kredit", and
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[my favorite], "Out of Klothes"). Other folks came up with "Oll Killed",
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"Often Kontradicts", etc.
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It was a catchy slogan and after it got so popular, people began to forget
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its origins and came up with other etymologies. Cecils mentions some of
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them including:
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1. Derivative of the Choctaw Indian affirmative "okeh". Jackson was
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said to have introduced it into white american talk.
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2. It was a telegraphic signal for "open key" (i.e., "ready to
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receive"). Problem was, first telegraph message was sent in 1844.
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3. "OK" stands for O. Kendall & Sons, a supplier of biscuits to the
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army that stamped its initials on its products.
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4. From the name of a Haitian port "Aux Cayes" (noted for its rum). A
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variation is that it came from the French "au quai" or "to the dock",
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which referred to cotton approved for loading.
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5. Stands for Obediah Kelly, a RR freight agent who used to stamp his
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initials on shipping documents.
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6. From the Greek "Olla Kalla" or "all good".
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7. A German general who fought on the American side (you know, the good
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guys) in the Revolutionary War who used to stamp his documents for
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"Ober Kommando".
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and, of course, others. So, if you like and have faith in Cecil, that's
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it (subject to any of my own errors in input of course). If you don't,
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too bad. It does cover a number of proposed etymologies (including the
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van Buren/Jackson one).
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Terry "I hope I won't FAQ this one up" Chan
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--
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================================================================================
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INTERNET: twchan@lbl.gov BITNET: twchan@lbl.bitnet
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"I realize that I'm generalizing here, but as is often the case when I
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generalize, I don't care." -- Dave Barry
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