Obama warns of the "old okey-doke"

Joel S. Berson Berson at ATT.NET
Thu Jan 24 16:14:33 UTC 2008


At 1/24/2008 09:27 AM, Amy West wrote:
>That sense is new to me, but that ain't saying much. I use
>"okey-dokey" for "OK", and get some giggles when I do. I always learn
>stuff here.

I think I would get giggles if I said "okey-dokey" too.

OED on-line (May 2004) has as its two earliest quotations for the
"confidence trick" sense:
1964 in R. D. Abrahams Deep down in Jungle v. 210 The reason why I
took you for the okey-dok [sic], is because you was the sharpest
nigger in town.
1975 R. HILL O. J. Simpson 13, I put the 'okey-doke' on them.  [Of
course we don't know from the OED who the speaker was!]

But Eudora seems to be quite on the qui vive for something!  It warns
me that this message "is likely to offend the average reader.  You
might consider toning it down."  What could it possibly be alerting me about?

Joel

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