OK: The Improbable Story of America's Greatest Word
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It is said to be the most frequently spoken (or typed) word on the planet, more common than an infant's first word ma or the ever-present beverage Coke. It was even the first word spoken on the moon. It is "OK"— the most ubiquitous and invisible of American expressions, one used countless times every day. Yet few of us know the secret history of OK—how it was coined, what it stood for, and the amazing extent of its influence.Allan Metcalf, a renowned popular writer on language, here traces the evolution of America's most popular word, writing with brevity and wit, and ranging across American history with colorful portraits of the nooks and crannies in which OK survived and prospered. He describes how OK was born as a lame joke in a newspaper article in 1839—used as a supposedly humorous abbreviation for "oll korrect" (ie, "all correct")—but should have died a quick death, as most clever coinages do. But OK was swept along in a nineteenth-century fad for abbreviations, was appropriated by a presidential campaign (one of the candidates being called "Old Kinderhook"), and finally was picked up by operators of the telegraph. Over the next century and a half, it established a firm toehold in the American lexicon, and eventually became embedded in pop culture, from the "I'm OK, You're OK" of 1970's transactional analysis, to Ned Flanders' absurd "Okeley Dokeley!" Indeed, OK became emblematic of a uniquely American attitude, and is one of our most successful global exports. Anyone who loves the life of words or the quirky corners of American culture will find this delightful book more than just OK. The Washington Post - Jonathan Yardley Metcalf has written an appealing and informative history of OK. Like others who write about language, he gets a little fey at times, and he does a great deal of quoting, some of which appears to be little more than padding aimed at making a slender book a bit less so, but the strengths of OK outweigh its weaknesses. It's not an OK book, it's a good one.
Prologue: The Oddity of OK Chapter 1: The Joke Chapter 2: Old Kinderhook Chapter 3: The Jackson Myth Chapter 4: Telegraphic OK Chapter 5: The Business of OK Chapter 6: OK in Literature Chapter 7: Presidential "okeh"Chapter 8: Okey-Dokey Chapter 9: The Practical OK Chapter 10: The Philosophical OK: Twentieth Century Chapter 11: The Psychological OK Chapter 12: The Philosophical OK: Twenty-first Century Epilogue: OK Around the World
