Several
etymologies have been proposed for
the word ''OK'' or ''okay''. The majority can be easily classified as
false etymologies, or possibly
folk etymologies
Folk etymology (also known as popular etymology, analogical reformation, reanalysis, morphological reanalysis or etymological reinterpretation) is a change in a word or phrase resulting from the replacement of an unfamiliar form by a more famili ...
.
H. L. Mencken, in ''
The American Language
''The American Language; An Inquiry into the Development of English in the United States'', first published in 1919, is H. L. Mencken's book about the English language as spoken in the United States.
Origins and concept
Mencken was inspired by ...
'', lists serious candidates and "a few of the more picturesque or preposterous".
[
] Allen Walker Read
Allen Walker Read (June 2, 1906 – October 16, 2002) was an American etymologist and lexicographer. Born in Minnesota, he spent much of his career as a professor at Columbia University in New York. Read's work ''Classic American Graffiti'' is w ...
surveyed a variety of explanations in a 1964 article titled "The Folklore of 'O. K.'"
Eric Partridge
Eric Honeywood Partridge (6 February 1894 – 1 June 1979) was a New Zealand– British lexicographer of the English language, particularly of its slang. His writing career was interrupted only by his service in the Army Education Corps an ...
described O.K. as "an evergreen of the correspondence column."
References
Sources
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Citations
{{DEFAULTSORT:List Of Proposed Etymologies Of Ok
OK
OK
Pseudolinguistics