It's probably the most used word in the world. Universally, people know exactly what you mean when you say it. It is extremely versatile - you can use it as a verb ('Can you o.k. this for me?'), a noun ('I need your o.k.'), an adjective ('It's okay'), an interjection ('Okay, let's go') or an adverb ('We did okay').
As you can see in my examples, there are also different ways of spelling it: OK, O.K. or Okay all mean the same.
But where does it come from? What does O.K. stand for? To use QI phrasing, Nobody Knows.
We know that it is an Americanism, but that's as far as it goes really.
People have their theories though. Here are the three most popular ones (source: Mother Tongue by Bill Bryson)
1) Someone's initials - the most obvious one I should think. Whose initials exactly however still remains a mystery.
2) It was adapted from a foreign or English dialect. Maybe some Geordies emmigrated to the States and their American brothers couldn't understand a word they were saying apart from something that sounded like 'Okay'? Who knows...
3) It comes from 'Oll Korrekt', the favourite saying and spelling of Andrew Jackson, the semi-literate 7th President of the United States. This theory is my favourite.
So there it is, the possibly most popular word in the world, a mystery. If anyone knows more about it, please enlighten me.
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