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I've had numerous conversations over the past two years with other authors, and even my editor Michael, about the "proper usage" of OK or Okay. All of which begs the question of origin--where did it come from and how did it start being used?
I recently came across the following from a retired American university professor:
What did the abbreviation "o.k." originally stand for?
All correct.
Newsroom slang: In spring 1839, readers of the Boston Morning Post likely noticed two small, obscure letters at the bottom of the paper's second column: "o.k." These letters were the fact-checking team's abbreviation for "all correct." Although it symbolized the team's sign-off for article accuracy, the abbreviation hardly seems accurate in and of itself. That's because it's not.
The joke that changed a language: The OK we know, love, and use today actually started as the editorial team's joke. In 1800s newsrooms, young staffers thought deliberately misspelling words in abbreviated slang was funny. They use abbreviations like "KG" to represent "know go" (the misspelling of no-go), and OK was their humorous alternative of "oll korrect."
When OK hit Washington: The term OK gained so much linguistic traction that Martin Van Buren coined it as his presidential campaign slogan in 1840. For Van Buren, who had the nickname "Old Kinderhook" from his hometown in upstate New York, the slogan OK insinuated that "Old Kinderhook was all correct." Van Buren may have lost the race to William Henry Harrison, but OK was the real victor. The abbreviation spread like wildfire, later earning the spelling adaptation "okay" in the 1868 novel "Little Women."
Then there's the matter of proper usage of one versus the other.
In American English it's fine to use either one, and we'll need our friends across the pond to weigh in on British English usage. The main determinant is following a style guide: the Associate Press recommends "OK" and the Chicago Manual of Style recommends "okay."
According to Mignon Fogarty (founder of Quick and Dirty Tips), because "okay" is the form recommended by Chicago, and Chicago is the dominant style guide in the publishing industry, "okay" is the dominant form in fiction, but "OK" wins overall in common usage...at least in the US! 8o
Bensiamin
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