Where did “OK” come from?
OK began as a joke: an 1839 Boston newspaper abbreviation for “oll korrect,” a deliberate misspelling of “all correct.” A presidential campaign made it stick.
Quick Answer
In the 1830s, Boston newspaper writers had a fad for joke abbreviations of deliberately misspelled phrases. On March 23, 1839, the Boston Morning Post, edited by Charles Gordon Greene, printed “o.k.” for “oll korrect,” a comic misspelling of “all correct.” Most of those gag abbreviations vanished, but OK got lucky: during the 1840 presidential campaign, supporters of Martin Van Buren, nicknamed “Old Kinderhook” after his hometown, formed O.K. Clubs, and the letters spread nationwide. The origin was pieced together by linguist Allen Walker Read, who published his findings in a series of six papers in the journal American Speech in 1963 and 1964.
By the Numbers
Key Facts
- First printed
- Boston Morning Post, March 23, 1839
- Stood for
- “Oll korrect,” a joke spelling of “all correct”
- Why it stuck
- Van Buren’s 1840 campaign: “Old Kinderhook” and the O.K. Clubs
- Who solved it
- Linguist Allen Walker Read, in papers published in 1963–64
Timeline
- 1830s
Boston writers trade joke abbreviations of misspelled phrases.
- March 23, 1839
The Boston Morning Post prints “o.k.” for “oll korrect.”
- 1840
Supporters of Martin Van Buren, “Old Kinderhook,” form O.K. Clubs, spreading the term.
- 1963–64
Linguist Allen Walker Read publishes the research that pins down OK’s origin.
A newspaper in-joke
Boston’s newspapers of the 1830s loved comic abbreviations of misspelled phrases. On March 23, 1839, editor Charles Gordon Greene slipped “o.k.,” for “oll korrect,” into a lighthearted piece in the Boston Morning Post.
A campaign slogan saves it
Most of those abbreviations faded fast. OK survived because of politics: Martin Van Buren, born in Kinderhook, New York, was nicknamed “Old Kinderhook,” and his supporters’ O.K. Clubs made the letters a rallying cry in the 1840 election.
The detective work
For decades, people argued about where OK came from. Linguist Allen Walker Read settled it with six papers in the journal American Speech in 1963 and 1964, tracing the word to the Boston Morning Post.
Myth vs. Fact
MythOK stands for “Old Kinderhook.”
FactVan Buren’s nickname spread the term in 1840, but OK was already in print a year earlier as “oll korrect.”
MythOK comes from another language.
FactSeveral theories exist, but linguist Allen Walker Read traced the earliest printed evidence to an 1839 Boston newspaper joke.
The Bottom Line
OK started as an 1839 Boston newspaper joke for “oll korrect” and survived thanks to Martin Van Buren’s “Old Kinderhook” campaign. A throwaway gag became one of the world’s most widely recognized words.
