OK

[aallan at AOL.COM]

It's improbable that a casual attempt at humor with a deliberately misspelled abbreviation in 1839 should have been drafted for the presidential election of 1840 ("Old Kinderhook" Martin Van Buren) and then be the subject of a hoax (that Andrew Jackson couldn't spell so he marked "ok" for "all correct" on documents) that led to people actually marking OK on documents and in telegraphy, and that's just the start of the improbables. Read the book! or see this Sunday's NY Times Book Review . . . - Allan





-----Original Message-----
From: Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Sent: Fri, Nov 19, 2010 6:46 am
Subject: Re: [ADS-L] OK


What's really improbable is that a whole book could be written about it!
Kudos to Allan!

Anyway, "improbable" is another one of those words that appeal to highbrow
audiences.  Can't hurt, right?

So, with a book on the F-word and book on OK, what's left?

JL

On Thu, Nov 18, 2010 at 10:43 PM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: OK
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> At 9:16 PM -0600 11/18/10, Cohen, Gerald Leonard wrote:
> >Thanks. Would Allan now be willing to tell us something about his
> >book?  And why is the story of OK improbable?
> >
> >Gerald Cohen
>
> Well, my students always find it odd that a word with as much
> historical significance could have originated from that trend of
> pseudo-semi-illiterate "laconics" in the silly little jocular pieces
> in newspapers.  A loan from Choctaw or Wolof, now that would be
> serious, and even "Old Kinderhook" would seem more plausible,
> especially given the context of a successful presidential campaign,
> but learning that America's greatest gift to the English language is
> in fact the sole survivor of that proto-texting fad that was equally
> exemplified by "K.Y." for 'Know Yuse', "O.W." for 'Oll Wright', and
> "N.S." for 'Nuff Said'--pretty improbable, all things being equal.
> OK, not *sole* survivor--there were the three R's (Reading, 'Riting,
> and 'Rithmetic) too. But still.
>
> LH
>
> >________________________________
> >
> >Original message from American Dialect Society on behalf of Arnold
> >Zwicky, Thu 11/18/2010                            5:14 PM:
> >unless i missed it -- always possible -- no one has celebrated Our
> >Own Allan Metcalf's publication of his book
> >   OK: The Improbable Story of America's Greatest Word (OUP)
> >arnold
> >
> >------------------------------------------------------------
> >The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



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