乐生活Today’sHow did the word "OK" come into being? What is the original abbreviation?
Here’s the answer: On March 23, 1839, Boston Morning Post, a Boston newspaper, published a satirical article in which it said: "… He of the Journal, and his train-band, would have his & quot; contribution box, & quot; et ceteras, O.K. – all correct – and cause the corks to fly, like sparks, upward.
It’s hard to understand what this sentence is saying without context, but O.K. did initially abbreviate "all correct", although the initials were different.
(Curiously, I think OK is easier to associate with all correct than AC, probably by comparing the pronunciation of the corresponding letters!)
This should be the earliest source of OK. At that time, there were many abbreviations, such as i.s.b.d (it shall be done), o.w. (oll write=" all right"), just like xswl and lol we have now. But OK became very popular at that time and has been popular till now for two reasons.
First, Martin van Buren’s nickname was Old Kinderhook, so his supporters set up an "O.K. Club" and all kinds of OK became popular. Newspapers specifically introduced Andrew Jackson, van Buren’s predecessor, as a bad writer, to use OK to express "read" (also known as oll korrect).
The second reason is also more important. It is not long before telegrams become popular. Briefness is very important. OK can express "yes, no problem" and be used quickly.
Allan Metcalf, an American author, wrote a book called "OK: The Improbable Story of America’s Greatest Word" to answer this rather boring question. Most of the historical material comes from Allen Walker Read, a professor at Columbia University in the 1960s, who spent four years trying to prove the origin of this little word…
But in fact, this kind of textual research is quite interesting. It can reveal the changes of popular culture and language in an era, and expose to many seemingly ordinary but representative things.
(and people who can read the pictures, children should be able to make soy sauce.
