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While typing a post on SO, I noticed that the word "ok" (when used in the sentence "I'm still learning so it is ok") was marked as misspelled (got to love spellcheck!) The first suggestion, however, confused me. The suggestion was "OK" (as opposed to "ok"). Then I thought, what about "okay"?

So, why is "OK" correctly spelled (vs "ok") and what is their relationship to the word "okay"? They all have the same meaning; could "OK" be a form of slang or abbreviation?

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possible duplicate of Where did the term "OK/Okay" come from? – MrHen May 16 '11 at 18:57
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related (not dupe): When is it OK to use OK? – MrHen May 16 '11 at 18:58

6 Answers

up vote 5 down vote accepted

"Okay" is listed as a variant spelling of "OK" in my local dictionary. This previous answer has a good description on the origin of "OK":

According to the OED, it's an initialism of oll (or orl) korrect, first seen in 1839.

I suspect that "ok" is not listed as an acceptable spelling because the origin of the word was "OK" due to its being an initialism. The variant of "okay" is just how one would spell a word with the same pronunciation. With "OK" and "okay", there isn't much need for "ok".

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Yeah, in the end "okay" is just how you would read "OK"... – Alenanno May 16 '11 at 21:05
This is a false etymology. See here: illinoisprairie.info/chocokeh.htm . The term is certainly Choctaw, which was the common language of the frontier, and the English term is a loanword, not an acronym. – Ron Maimon Mar 10 '12 at 7:49
up vote 2 down vote

I will try here to present how the “O.K” initials; was first finds in English Language. When the first Greek emigrants came to the American continent they have no any knowledge in English.
They only want to work and nothing additional knowledge wants to have.
An exception to this were few of them have the willing start learning English, so there Bosses assign to them a leading roll in smaller groups.
Under these circumstances these individuals has the task to cover the gap between the Greek with no English knowledge and there Bosses.
So every time when a job was finished they write on document’s the sign of “O.K” which means “Olla” “Kalla” which translated in English is “Everything is good”.
So all they’re happy because they’ve found a common area of communication between them by typing the initials “O.K”.
So the echo of the initials "O.K" is "Okay" because of speling the two letters.

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Are you suggesting that OK comes from Greek? – Steve Melnikoff May 17 '11 at 11:59
@Steve In a way yes, that comes from a necessity for communication as I’m explained above. Sort and simple initials; with solid meaning. Of course not from the Greek Language directly – Lefteris Gkinis May 17 '11 at 14:22
@Steve, Didn't you know? Everything comes from Greek! I've never heard this theory before, though. – TRiG Sep 3 '11 at 20:27
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This is fascinating. Can you source this? – Neil Fein Oct 27 '11 at 16:52
This is incorrect. Ok comes from Choctaw, and there can be no reasonable doubt about this. See here: illinoisprairie.info/chocokeh.htm for a complete argument. The coinciding specialized strange usage of both terms is particularly persuasive. – Ron Maimon Mar 10 '12 at 7:50
up vote 2 down vote

O.K. was probably the first spelling (and there are dozens of theories about its origin). OK is an obvious shortening, maybe by somebody who had only heard the phrase. But ok would be something different, perhaps a small okapi. That's what your spellchecker thought wasn't okay.

Edit: O.K. is pronounced 'okay', and so is OK. But ok would be pronounced 'ock'.

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up vote -1 down vote

Okay is the spelling used in prose. O.K. is only used in prose if the writer is describing the activity of another writer. E.g.: "He wrote 'O.K.' on the invoice."

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up vote -1 down vote

I think okay is used in narrative prose and sentences e.g "Father okayed admission of his son to local sports club". Whereas O.K. is more often used in conversational sense E.g a boss says: "you will go to the warehouse tomorrow and purchase these items." The employee says: "O.K. I will do it. But shall I pay as COD or ask them to charge to account?"

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Do you have any sources? – Mahnax May 7 '12 at 2:58
up vote -2 down vote

The most historically accurate spelling is the common 19th century one, Okeh, which was disfavored to disguise the native American origins of the term. See here: http://www.illinoisprairie.info/chocokeh.htm . The pronunciation of "Okeh" is "okay", so the spelling "okay" is more phonetically accurate, and might be preferred on those grounds.

The acronym "OK" is a made-up thing partly to support frontiersman Andrew Jackson and his running mate Martin Van Buren, and it was given a bunch of false acronym associations. The term was never an acronym, but it sounds like one. 19th century people, and many 20th century ones, knew it was frontier Choctaw.

So you use OK if you want to pretend its an acronym, and okay if you don't want to do that. I personally think the correct spelling one should use is the clearly native American okeh, but, to my shame, I always use "Ok" (one capital), since "OK" sounds like shouting, and either "okay" or "okeh" take two keystrokes longer to type.

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"Okeh" never seems to have been a common 19th century spelling of "OK". If it did come from Choctaw, it was never written down until the 1830s (except in Choctaw dictionaries), when it was spelled O.K. – Peter Shor Mar 10 '12 at 22:47
@Peter Shor: This is belied by evidence given in the link, which cites 19th century sources spelling it okeh, and includes Woodrow Wilson, who despite his spotty (to say the least) record on racial harmony, advocates "okeh" to emphasize the Choctaw origins. The Choctaw spelling appears as standard spellings in Russian (as I understood it from the linked page) and German (I think, see page) where the Native American origins were never seriously doubted. It is a shame that modern sources uniformly follow an obvious fabrication, as opposed to recognizing the bilingual nature of frontier America. – Ron Maimon Mar 11 '12 at 4:50
The wiktionary entry for "okeh" has its first citation in 1918. If it had actually been a common spelling in the 19th century, they would have been able to give an earlier one. (Note that I assume they don't count dictionary entries giving the etymology for O.K. or Choctaw language books as valid uses, since both existed earlier.) The link you give does make a good case for "okeh" being the true origin for O.K., but you're reading evidence into it that isn't there. – Peter Shor Mar 11 '12 at 11:46
@pete Shor: I agree you would have a hard time googling for "okeh", but it's like trying to find "w'allah" or "Kus achta" (sorry, this is very vulgar) in Hebrew--- everyone knows its Arabic borrowing, but it's not used in formal speech or in writing. The "okeh" spelling is advocated by Wilson, based on Choctaw dictionaries, I assume the fellow who wrote the page found some 19th century references to okeh, but I didn't check them at all. I am not an expert on this, I just know that words aren't produced by acronym jokes until WWII (notably fubar'ed). – Ron Maimon Mar 11 '12 at 19:21
Exactly where in the article does it say that "okeh" was a spelling used in the 19th century by anybody other than the Choctaw? – Peter Shor Mar 11 '12 at 19:39
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