Writing Lessons & Advice: OK Day
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- 3 min read
I find it difficult to think of March twenty-third as an ok day...for one thing it's my birthday! But even before me, plenty of significant matters occurred on this day too, like Patrick Henry claiming, “Give me liberty or give me death!” in 1775, shortly before the thirteen colonies’ war with Great Britain. Also, on this day in 1806, Lewis and Clark began their return to Missouri after their two-year exploration of the Louisiana Purchase and the Pacific Northwest. The first photo of the moon was taken in 1840. The Wright Brothers patented their flying machine in 1903. Beatles musician John Lennon published In His Own Write, a book of his own poems, stories, and drawings in 1964. Wernher von Braun, Perez Hilton, Joan Crawford, and Kenneth Cole were born on this day as well. Easter has fallen on this day too in very rare instances, like in 1845, 1856, 1913, and 2008. (Next time will be in 2160.) How can one say this is just an ok day when such marks were made on history and culture?!
I’m exaggerating and playing on words a bit because March twenty-third is OK Day in celebration of this simple, little American English phrase full of versatility! Ok is a word that generally expresses agreement, acceptance, satisfaction, etc. It is recognized by a few different spellings: okay, okeh, O.K, Ok, or ok. Some of its closest synonyms include the text equivalents: k or kk, and the casual variations, like A-ok, m’kay, and okie-dokie. It's a flexible part of speech as well, easily functioning as a/an:
Adjective- This application is ok to approve.
Adverb-- He did ok on the evaluation.
Noun-- Management gave an ok to approve this candidate.
Verb-- My manager okayed the disposal of these documents.
Interjection-- Ok! Why is the printer beeping for the umpteenth time?!
In addition, ok has been adopted by many other languages all over the world and is one of the most written or spoken words on the planet! Supposedly it was even the first spoken on the moon too!
The origins of ok come from a few different places. Some studies have connected it to the Greek, Scottish, Choctaw, or West African languages. (Choctaw gives us the “okeh” spelling.) But the most popular starting point comes from the mid nineteenth century with a language fad that strongly favored acronyms, abbreviations, and misspellings--not unlike the text and internet lingo of this century. Using these in writing was seen as humorous at the time. So on this day in 1839, the Boston Morning Post used the term OK--short for “oll korrect”-- in an article satirizing a competitor.
The Boston Morning Post incident is generally regarded as the first recorded use of ok. Its place in the lexicon was further solidified within the next year through Martin Van Buren’s 1840 presidential campaign slogan: “Vote for O.K.”, which in this context abbreviated his nickname, Old Kinderhooks. Little Women writer Louisa May Alcott also used it in the 1868 publication of her famous novel. The idea to give ok a day of its own came from professor Allan Metcalf, who dives deeper into the phrase’s background in the book, OK: The Improbable Story of America's Greatest Word, and initiated the holiday in 2011.
Ok’s range of presentation may have you wondering which form is acceptable. OK and okay are a general consensus. Periods are not hard requirements and the style guides will express some preference.
Be it for the history and impact of OK or other human affairs, calling this day anything less than ok is an understatement! Hope this gives you more appreciation and enlightenment for such a big, little word!
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Sources/further reading
Historical sources for the random facts
All about ok and Ok Day
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