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You are here: Home / Language / Where Did the Word Okay Come From and What Does it Mean?

Where Did the Word Okay Come From and What Does it Mean?

April 24, 2020 by Karen Hill

The word okay, or O.K., is American in origin and surfaced for the first time in the Boston Morning Post on March 23, 1839.

It was a comedic use of “All Correct” and was deliberately misspelled as “011 Korrect,” which when abbreviated becomes the letters O.K.

The abbreviation caught on around Boston and New York and became a slogan for President Martin Van Buren’s campaign for re-election.

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Filed Under: Language

About Karen Hill

Karen Hill is a freelance writer, editor, and columnist. Born in New York, her work has appeared in the Examiner, Yahoo News, Buzzfeed, among others.

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