[HN Gopher] The history of 'OK' (2023)
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The history of 'OK' (2023)
Author : goles
Score : 35 points
Date : 2024-05-09 20:07 UTC (2 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (people.howstuffworks.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (people.howstuffworks.com)
| CTDOCodebases wrote:
| I always find it odd when people track down the invention of
| something to one source when multiple people were using the same
| phrase around the same time.
|
| Sure it's popularisation may have been fueled by a particular
| person or group but did they really invent it? Or did they refit
| an existing abbreviation to fit their purpose? Or was it just
| invented in parallel?
|
| One explanation I have heard about "OK" is that it was an
| abbreviation invented by Greek migrant dock workers in the USA.
| Apparently they used to write the abbreviation "OK" on boxes that
| contained what they were supposed to contain. "ola kala" is a
| Greek phrase that basically means "everything good".
| syndicatedjelly wrote:
| Ok
| dang wrote:
| Related:
|
| _How 'OK' took over the world (2011)_ -
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14533098 - June 2017 (99
| comments)
|
| I think there have been other threads as well?
| pfdietz wrote:
| Perhaps the way to look at this was that "ok" came not from the
| events that created it, but from the niche it filled. There must
| have been a need for the term or it would not have thrived and
| spread.
| hahahacorn wrote:
| A deep knowledge of etymology, if nothing else, is useful for
| answering a 5 year old's infamous chain of "why?"s
|
| Disregarding potential inaccuracies, I love stories like these.
| Not particularly sure why, but I'm sure someone has a post
| somewhere about why we're so obsessed with the history of _our_
| mundane.
| jonplackett wrote:
| Is it me or does the final paragraph totally contradict itself?
|
| > It's not that it was needed to 'fill a gap' in any language.
| Before 1839, English speakers had 'yes,' 'good,' 'fine,'
| 'excellent,' 'satisfactory' and 'all right.' What OK provided
| that the others did not was neutrality, a way to affirm or to
| express agreement without having to offer an opinion.
|
| That, as is then explained - response without judgement, is a
| really big and useful gap to fill.
| jamiek88 wrote:
| It's unknown where OK and okay came from. Each article has
| different just so bullshit stories but stories they remain.
| causality0 wrote:
| I've found it's often impossible to get keyboards like Swiftkey
| to stop autocorrecting "ok" to "OK". It's so irritating because
| while grammatically correct, it makes me look like a boomer in
| text conversations.
| ClassyJacket wrote:
| I've noticed this too but I just use the word 'okay' anyway. I
| mean, I'm not saying 'ock', I'm saying 'oh kay', so why
| shouldn't the spelling reflect that?
| gerdesj wrote:
| Or are tending towards m'kay!
| doctor_eval wrote:
| My ghoti would like a word.
| pushedx wrote:
| the first thing I do on any device is disable all forms of
| autocorrect
| bigstrat2003 wrote:
| What? Nobody cares if you say "ok" or "OK", dude.
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(page generated 2024-05-09 23:00 UTC)