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

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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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