# O.k.



## Alxmrphi

I thought this was English, till not long ago, when I heard Spaniards say it, and Italians say it, and some other languages I didn't recognise I'd hear "O.K" in it.

My question is, do all languages and cultures use this? Where does it come from and howcome this common phrase overlaps into so many different cultures? Possibly even more than "no" does, because there doesn't seem to be many variations on "O.K".. but there are on "no" (non, etc).


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## Outsider

It is English. And they say there is no global linguistic domination of English...


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## Alxmrphi

Really?!?! Then why do so many other countries use it???


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## Outsider

It's short and trendy. All the coolest movie stars use it in their films. Etc.


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## viera

I'd be interested to hear of any languages that *don't* use it.


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## ireney

http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?t=40874


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## konungursvia

I believe it is West African in origin, imported to the US by slaves. The word was something like "wo-ke" meaning fine, agreed. This is what I remember hearing long long ago, in a galaxy...


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## Outsider

I'm afraid not. "O.K." is a coinage of 19th century American newspapers.


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## QUIJOTE

I am afraid there are more theories about the subject.

http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/ok.html


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## Heba

In colloquial Egyptian Arabic, we use O.K. 



Alex_Murphy said:


> I thought this was English, till not long ago, when I heard Spaniards say it.


 
Before reading your post, I thought that the spaniards rarely use it. My Spanish teachers usually preferred ''vale'', that I even made the generalization that O.K is not commonly used in Spain.


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## konungursvia

Well, anyone can supply a hyperlink, so here's mine, and Oxford, no less, says my theory is indeed one of the plausible ones.

http://www.askoxford.com/asktheexperts/faq/aboutwordorigins/ok

Which do you think is more likely, that a particular individual invented a common phrase, or that it was borrowed from an existing phrase in another language? We seldom see the former, and very frequently see the latter. So I still think the  "oll korrect" hypothesis is less likely.


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## Alxmrphi

Wow, this is so much more interesting than I anticipated, even in Egyptian Arabic? Wow!


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## Namakemono

Alex_Murphy said:


> I thought this was English, till not long ago, when I heard Spaniards say it, and Italians say it, and some other languages I didn't recognise I'd hear "O.K" in it.
> 
> My question is, do all languages and cultures use this? Where does it come from and howcome this common phrase overlaps into so many different cultures? Possibly even more than "no" does, because there doesn't seem to be many variations on "O.K".. but there are on "no" (non, etc).


 
I've lived all my life in Spain, and I've never heard anyone in Spain use it when they talk.


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## Cereth

Well in Mexico OK is commonly used  and It is also commonly used in Japan too!! 
But OK in Egypt..mm I´ve never guessed it!
In Spain always try to avoid the use of "americanized" words...maybe that is why they say "vale" instead of OK.

In Mexico we don´t say "vale", besides of OK we say "bien" or "Bueno"


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## pedro0001

I've heard once this version:

Some german profesor used to correct exams writing A.K. on those questions which were right answered (Alles Klar, which means O.K.). With time the A become an O and that's all.


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## Etcetera

Alex_Murphy said:


> My question is, do all languages and cultures use this? Where does it come from and howcome this common phrase overlaps into so many different cultures?


I don't know about *all *languages and cultures, of course, but 'OK' is very popular in Russia. And this word is pronounced in almost the same way as it's pronounced in English, even by those people who don't speak any English at all! 
Most probably (one can never be certain in such matters), this word came into Russian from American English, and this happened pretty long ago.


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## Alxmrphi

So, would we all say that this is the most common word in the world?


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## Cereth

Mm yes I think it is !!!


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## Etcetera

It's very likely indeed!


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## Chazzwozzer

Alex_Murphy said:


> My question is, do all languages and cultures use this? Where does it come from and howcome this common phrase overlaps into so many different cultures? Possibly even more than "no" does, because there doesn't seem to be many variations on "O.K".. but there are on "no" (non, etc).


Even those who don't speak English knows what O.K means. It's widely used in Turkish. "_okey_letmek" (to okay), as a verb, used to mean "to confirm" just like in English. Pronunciation is all the same.

O.K is also the name of a popular condom brand in Turkey and their commercial always ends with: "Her şey okey" (Everything's OK) So I think it may have helped spreading the usage.

Another thing, okey is the name of a very famous Turkish game. See here. I don't know how you name it in another languages.

O.K is definitely most used English loan-word.


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## Heba

Yes, it is quite common in Egypt,  even among those who do not speak English. It is even more used than the Arabic equivalent.Some people  tried to write it using Arabic characters in some of the articles in newspapers (it looks kinda awkward when written in Arabic!).

Yes, I agree. I think it is universal


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## Alxmrphi

How does it look written in Arabic?


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## cherine

It's usually written like this أوكيه but I don't know if there is another/other transliteration(s).
And it's usually pronounced as ok-ke (stressed k, long e), and sometimes ok-keih (slightly pronounced h).


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## C. E. Whitehead

QUIJOTE said:


> I am afraid there are more theories about the subject.
> 
> http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/ok.html


 

Hi!  I've heard the newspaper origin theory, but always have wondered about a possible relationship with the word 'oc,' which meant 'yes' in the 12th century l'angue d'oc' spoken in the South of France, etc.  This region had ties with the English while the North of France had ties with the Church apparently; Richard Lionheart was called 'oc-e-non' ('yes and no') by the trobador/statesman/soldier Bertran de Born.  Eleanor of Aquitaine was from the South of France (granddaughter of a trobador).

I'm thinking it could have gotten into American English since a large part of Britain, and particularly Scotlant, migrated to what was to become the U.S.

Here's a list of  theories:

http://www.yaelf.com/aueFAQ/mifok.shtml

(it does include the Occitan theory!!)

--cew


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## chicagriega

Some people believe that Greek immigrands in America ''invented'' o.k. as an abreviation of the greek phrase '' ola kala'' which means that everything is fine. In my opinion, it is so comon in many countries because it is short and we ues to hear it all the time in movies and tv series. Hope to find my information useful.


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## lulilanzi

We use OK also in Argentina, and we pronounce it as in american English.
What I have heard about Ok´s origin is that long ago soldiers who return from battles, wars, etc, used to carried a kind of poster to announce how many people have died during the battle.
For example, 100 K (one hundred killed), 2 K (2 killed); and 0 K ( mens 0 killed)
And when the poster said 0 K, that meant everything was fine, success.
That´s what I have heard... in a very bad english!!!


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## sokol

There are a great many theories concerning the origin of okay - here some more on English Wiki:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Okay
And for some additional theories you can as well check the German version:
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Okay
And my guess would be that several other adventurous etymologies on okay could be found.

And yes, it's used widely in German, pronunciation is similar but not identical to the original one.
A Hungarian who came to live in Austria however pronounced it completely different, with stress on the first syllable and very open 'o': /'oke/ (with Hungarian accent as Hungarian stress is on the first syllable).


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## cute angel

Well I heard a short story about that expression which is *OK* it is from the name  of the town old kodahok in New York but these two letters represent the name of this town they said there was a man called *Martin van Boudine* who wrote vote for the son of *OLD KODAHOK OK* and poeple support him telling the name of thier town then they took the abbriviation Ok which used as an expression of agreement ok for MArtin

For the  use we don't use it in Algeria because we follow france not Britain but for Gulf and Middle east they use it .


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## argentina84

lulilanzi said:


> We use OK also in Argentina, and we pronounce it as in american English.
> What I have heard about Ok´s origin is that long ago soldiers who return from battles, wars, etc, used to carried a kind of poster to announce how many people have died during the battle.
> For example, 100 K (one hundred killed), 2 K (2 killed); and 0 K ( mens 0 killed)
> And when the poster said 0 K, that meant everything was fine, success.
> That´s what I have heard... in a very bad english!!!


 
I agree with Lilizanzi. We use OK everyday, in all contexs. And I have also heard the same story about the origin of OK or its spread from the States to the world.


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## Polymnia

I have also heard it widely used in Scandinavia.


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