January 2012
24 posts
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The Origin of the Word "Okay"
“None have had as big an impact as the word “OK”. The origins of the phrase continue to puzzle lexicographers, but some are convinced that it was part of a craze for comical initials in American newspapers. N.G was used in place of “no-good”. S.P. meant that something was “small potatoes”. And a debtor who disappeared overnight was said to have G.T.T. (“Gone to Texas)” O.K. stood for “oll korrect”, a deliberately misspelled version of “all correct”. It made it big in America during the 1840s and soon made the leap across the Atlantic. It’s hard now to imagine how we could live without it.”
(via Bob Nicholson:The Guardian)
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