Interesting: Origin of the most common English word, 'OK'
If someone asks us: "What is the English word which is universally understood"? The answer would be: 'OK'. Yes, OK is most common English word which is understood all over the world, even by such people whose stock of English is less than five words!But the word 'OK' has entered the English dictionary relatively much later. It would be interesting to know the origin of this most commonly used English word.
The story of OK began in the mid-19th century in the United States of America. At that time in the USA, spelling a word incorrectly was considered top level intellectual humour or sarcasm. On 23rd March 1839, the Boston Morning Post included an insignificant article full of sarcasm towards another newspaper. In this article, the abbreviation "o.k." was first used to denote "all (oll) correct (korrect)." This was a sarcastic misspelling of "all correct" as "oll korrect".
The word OK became popular after a year or so thanks to the then US President Martin Van Buren. During his 1840 re-election campaign, his supporters used to address him by his nickname, Old Kinderhook, from his birthplace in Kinderhook near New York. They coined the phrase "Vote for OK" and formed the "OK Club".
Van Buren's opponent, William Henry Harrison, then linked OK with "oll korrect" to mock Van Buren and former President Andrew Jackson for their supposed lack of education. Eventually, Van Buren lost the Presidential election, but the word "OK" found a permanent and prominent place in English vocabulary.