OK

{{See also|List of proposed etymologies of OK}}

Many explanations for the origin of the expression have been suggested, but few have been discussed seriously by linguists. The following proposals have found mainstream recognition.{{cite AV media|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1UnIDL-eHOs |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211211/1UnIDL-eHOs| archive-date=2021-12-11 |url-status=live|title=YouTube}}{{cbignore}}

The etymology that most reference works provide today is based on a survey of the word's early history in print: a series of six articles by Allen Walker Read{{*}}{{cite book |contributor-first=Richard W. |contributor-last=Bailey |contribution=Allen Walker Read, American Scholar |last=Read |first=Allen W. |editor-last=Bailey |editor-first=Richard W. |title=Milestones in the History of English in America |publisher=American Dialect Society, Duke University Press |location=Durham, NC |year= 2002}}
{{*}}{{cite journal |first=Richard W. |last=Bailey |date=December 2004 |title=Allen Walker Read, American Scholar |pages=433–437 |journal=ETC: A Review of General Semantics |url=http://www.generalsemantics.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/61-4-bailey.pdf |access-date=6 February 2015 |archive-date=24 September 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924021442/http://www.generalsemantics.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/61-4-bailey.pdf |url-status=dead }} in the journal American Speech in 1963 and 1964.*{{cite journal |last1= Read |first1= Allen W |year= 1963 |title= The first stage in the history of "O.K" |journal= American Speech |volume= 38 |issue= 1| pages= 5–27 |jstor=453580 |doi=10.2307/453580}}
*{{cite journal |last1= Read |first1= Allen W |year= 1963 |title= The second stage in the history of "O.K" |journal= American Speech |volume= 38 |issue= 2| pages= 83–102 |jstor=453285 |doi=10.2307/453285}}
*{{cite journal |last1= Read |first1= Allen W |year= 1963 |title= Could Andrew Jackson spell? |journal= American Speech |volume= 38 |issue= 3| pages= 188–195 |jstor=454098 |doi=10.2307/454098}}
*{{cite journal |last1= Read |first1= Allen W |year= 1964 |title= The folklore of "O.K." |journal= American Speech |volume= 39 |issue= 1| pages= 5–25 |jstor=453922 |doi=10.2307/453922}}
*{{cite journal |last1= Read |first1= Allen W |year= 1964 |title= Later stages in the history of "O.K." |journal= American Speech |volume= 39 |issue= 2| pages= 83–101 |jstor=453111 |doi=10.2307/453111}}
*{{cite journal |last1= Read |first1= Allen W |year= 1964 |title= Successive revisions in the explanation of "O.K." |journal= American Speech |volume= 39 |issue= 4| pages= 243–267 |jstor=454321 |doi=10.2307/454321}} He tracked the spread and evolution of the word in American newspapers and other written documents, and later throughout the rest of the world. He also documented controversy surrounding OK and the history of its folk etymologies, both of which are intertwined with the history of the word itself. Read argues that, at the time of the expression's first appearance in print, a broader fad existed in the United States of "comical misspellings" and of forming and employing acronyms, themselves based on colloquial speech patterns:

{{blockquote|The abbreviation fad began in Boston in the summer of 1838 ... and used expressions like OFM, "our first men," NG, "no go," GT, "gone to Texas," and SP, "small potatoes." Many of the abbreviated expressions were exaggerated misspellings, a stock in trade of the humorists of the day. One predecessor of OK was OW, "oll wright."{{sfn|Adams|1985}}}}

The general fad is speculated to have existed in spoken or informal written U.S. English for a decade or more before its appearance in newspapers. OK{{'}}s original presentation as "all correct" was later varied with spellings such as "Oll Korrect" or even "Ole Kurreck".

The term appears to have achieved national prominence in 1840, when supporters of the Democratic political party claimed during the 1840 United States presidential election that it stood for "Old Kinderhook", a nickname for the Democratic president and candidate for reelection, Martin Van Buren, a native of Kinderhook, New York. "Vote for OK" was snappier than using his Dutch name. In response, Whig opponents attributed OK, in the sense of "Oll Korrect", to the bad spelling of Andrew Jackson, Van Buren's predecessor. The country-wide publicity surrounding the election appears to have been a critical event in OK{{'}}s history, widely and suddenly popularizing it across the United States.

Read proposed an etymology of OK in "Old Kinderhook" in 1941.{{sfn|Read|1941}} The evidence presented in that article was somewhat sparse, and the connection to "Oll Korrect" not fully elucidated. Various challenges to the etymology were presented; e.g., Heflin's 1962 article.{{sfn|Heflin|1962}} However, Read's landmark 1963–1964 papers silenced most of the skepticism. Read's etymology gained immediate acceptance, and is now offered without reservation in most dictionaries.{{cite web |title=OK or o·kay |url=https://www.ahdictionary.com/word/search.html?q=OK |work=American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language |publisher=Houghton Mifflin}} (good summary of the results of Read's six articles) Read himself was nevertheless open to evaluating alternative explanations:

{{blockquote|Some believe that the Boston newspaper's reference to OK may not be the earliest. Some are attracted to the claim that it is of American-Indian origin. There is an Indian word, okeh, used as an affirmative reply to a question. Mr Read treated such doubting calmly. "Nothing is absolute," he once wrote, "nothing is forever."{{cite news|title=Allen Read |url=https://www.economist.com/node/1403400 |access-date=29 December 2014 |newspaper=The Economist |date=24 October 2002}}}}

In "All Mixed Up", the folk singer Pete Seeger sang that OK was of Choctaw origin,{{sfn|Fay|2007}} as the dictionaries of the time tended to agree. Three major American reference works (Webster's, New Century, Funk & Wagnalls) cited this etymology as the probable origin until as late as 1961.{{sfn|Fay|2007}}

The earliest written evidence for the Choctaw origin is provided in work by the Christian missionaries Cyrus Byington and Alfred Wright in 1825.{{citation needed|date=October 2020}} These missionaries ended many sentences in their translation of the Bible with the particle "okeh", meaning "it is so",{{citation needed|date=October 2020}} which was listed as an alternative spelling in the 1913 Webster's.{{cite web |url=http://www.thefreedictionary.com/okeh |title=okeh |work=Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary |year= 1913 |access-date=29 December 2014 |via=The Free Dictionary by Farlex |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141229203357/http://www.thefreedictionary.com/okeh |archive-date=2014-12-29}}

Byington's Dictionary of the Choctaw Language confirms the ubiquity of the "okeh" particle,{{sfn|Byington|1915}} and his Grammar of the Choctaw Language calls the particle -keh an "affirmative contradistinctive", with the "distinctive" o- prefix.{{sfn|Byington|1870|p=14}}

{{blockquote|Subsequent Choctaw spelling books de-emphasized the spellings lists in favor of straight prose, and they made use of the particle[,] but they too never included it in the word lists or discussed it directly. The presumption was that the use of particle "oke" or "hoke" was so common and self-evident as to preclude any need for explanation or discussion for either its Choctaw or non-Choctaw readership.{{sfn|Fay|2007}}}}

The Choctaw language was one of the languages spoken at this time in the Southeastern United States by a tribe with significant contact with African slaves.{{cite book|first=Robert Elliot |last= Flickinger |year=1911 |title=The Choctaw Freedmen and The Story of Oak Hill Industrial Academy|url=https://www.gutenberg.org/files/23321/23321-h/23321-h.htm|publisher=gutenberg.org}} The major language of trade in this area, Mobilian Jargon, was based on Choctaw-Chickasaw, two Muskogean-family languages. This language was used, in particular, for communication with the slave-owning[https://books.google.com/books?id=ZVQvhgEuKZMC&pg=PA170 Tiya Miles, Ties that Bind: The Story of an Afro-Cherokee Family in Slavery and Freedom], University of California Press, 2005, pp. 170-173[http://digital.library.okstate.edu/encyclopedia/entries/S/SL003.html "SLAVERY"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101018205458/https://digital.library.okstate.edu/encyclopedia/entries/S/SL003.html |date=18 October 2010}}, Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture, Oklahoma Historical Society, Retrieved 29 December 2014 Cherokee (an Iroquoian-family language).{{sfn|Badger|1971}}{{sfn|Hopkins}} For the three decades prior to the Boston abbreviation fad, the Choctaw had been in extensive negotiation with the U.S. government,{{cite journal | last1 = DeRosier | first1 = Arthur Jr. | year = 1967 | title = Andrew Jackson and Negotiations for The Removal of the Choctaw Indians | journal = The Historian | volume = 29 | issue = 3| pages = 343–362| doi = 10.1111/j.1540-6563.1967.tb01782.x }} after having fought alongside them at the Battle of New Orleans.

Arguments for a more Southern origin for the word note the tendency of English to adopt loan words in language contact situations, as well as the ubiquity of the OK particle. Similar particles exist in native language groups distinct from Iroquoian (Algonquian, Cree cf. "[http://www.creedictionary.com/search/index.php?q=ekosi&scope=1 ekosi]").

An early attestation of the particle 'kay' is found in a 1784 transcription of a North Carolina slave, who, seeking to avoid being flogged, explained being found asleep in the canoe he had been ordered to bring to a certain place to pick up a European exploring near his newly-purchased property :

{{blockquote|Kay, massa, you just leave me, me sit here, great fish jump up into da canoe, here he be, massa, fine fish, massa; me den very grad; den me sit very still, until another great fish jump into de canoe; but me fall asleep...{{sfn|Smyth|1784|pp=1:118–121}}}}

A West African (Mande and/or Bantu) etymology has been argued in scholarly sources, tracing the word back to {{Clarify|date=September 2023|reason=Which? Wolof and Bantu are utterly unrelated and spoken 2000 km apart.|text=the Wolof and Bantu}} word waw-kay or the Mande (aka "Mandinke" or "Mandingo") phrase o ke.{{citation needed|date=September 2023}}

David Dalby first made the claim that the particle OK could have African origins in the 1969 Hans Wolff Memorial Lecture. His argument was reprinted in various newspaper articles between 1969 and 1971.{{sfn|Cassidy|1981}} This suggestion has also been mentioned by Joseph Holloway, who argued in the 1993 book The African Heritage of American English (co-written with a retired missionary) that various West African languages have near-homophone discourse markers with meanings such as "yes indeed" or which serve as part of the back-channeling repertoire.{{sfn|Holloway|Vass|1993}} Frederic Cassidy challenged Dalby's claims, asserting that there is no documentary evidence that any of these African-language words had any causal link with its use in the American press.{{sfn|Cassidy|1981}}

The West African hypothesis had not been accepted by 1981 by any etymologists,{{sfn|Cassidy|1981}}{{cite web|url=http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=ok|title=Online Etymology Dictionary}}Lighter, Jonathon, (1994). The Random House Historical Dictionary of American Slang, 708. yet has since appeared in scholarly sources published by linguists and non-linguists alike.[https://linguistlist.org/issues/4/4-705/ LINGUIST List 4.705]. 14 September 1993.

A large number of origins have been proposed. Some of them are thought to fall into the category of folk etymology and are proposed based merely on apparent similarity between OK and one or another phrase in a foreign language with a similar meaning and sound. Some examples are:

• A corruption from the speech of the large number of descendants of Scottish and Ulster Scots (Scots-Irish) immigrants to North America, of the common Scots phrase och aye ("oh yes").{{cite journal |last1= Read |first1= Allen W |year= 1964 |title= The folklore of "O.K." |journal= American Speech |volume= 39 |issue= 1| pages= 5–25 |jstor=453922 |doi=10.2307/453922}}
• A borrowing of the Greek phrase {{lang|el|όλα καλά}} ({{Transliteration|el|óla kalá}}), meaning "all good".{{sfn|Weber|1942}}

Allen Walker Read identifies the earliest known use of O.K. in print as 1839, in the edition of 23 March of the Boston Morning Post. The announcement of a trip by the Anti-Bell-Ringing Society (a "frolicsome group" according to Read) received attention from the Boston papers. Charles Gordon Greene wrote about the event using the line that is widely regarded as the first instance of this strain of OK, complete with gloss:

{{blockquote|The above is from the Providence Journal, the editor of which is a little too quick on the trigger, on this occasion. We said not a word about our deputation passing "through the city" of Providence.—We said our brethren were going to New York in the Richmond, and they did go, as per Post of Thursday. The "Chairman of the Committee on Charity Lecture Bells," is one of the deputation, and perhaps if he should return to Boston, via Providence, he of the Journal, and his train-band, would have his "contribution box," et ceteras, o.k.—all correct—and cause the corks to fly, like sparks, upward.}}

Read gives a number of subsequent appearances in print. Seven instances were accompanied with glosses that were variations on "all correct" such as "oll korrect" or "ole kurreck", but five appeared with no accompanying explanation, suggesting that the word was expected to be well known to readers and possibly in common colloquial use at the time.

Various claims of earlier usage have been made. For example, it was claimed that the phrase appeared in a 1790 court record from Sumner County, Tennessee, discovered in 1859 by a Tennessee historian named Albigence Waldo Putnam, in which Andrew Jackson apparently said "proved a bill of sale from Hugh McGary to Gasper Mansker, for a Negro man, which was O.K.".[https://jacksonianamerica.com/2010/12/09/ok-o-k-or-okay/ Jacksonian America: "OK, O.K. or Okay?"] [https://books.google.com/books?id=9DjMSsxUR_UC&q=%22proved+a+bill+of+sale%22&pg=PR1 "History of Middle Tennessee" by A.W. Putnam, 1859, page 252] The lawyer who successfully argued many Indian rights claims, Felix S. Cohen, supported the Jacksonian popularization of the term based on its Choctaw origin:

{{blockquote|When Andrew Jackson popularized a word that his Choctaw neighbors always used in their councils to signify agreement, the aristocrats he threw out of office, always grasping at a chance to ridicule backwoods illiteracy, accused him of abbreviating and misspelling "All Correct". But O.K. (or okeh, in Choctaw) does not mean "all correct"; it means that we have reached a point where practical agreement is possible, however far from perfection it may lie.{{cite journal |first=Felix S. |last=Cohen |title=Americanizing the White Man |journal=The American Scholar |volume=21 |issue=2 |date=Spring 1952 |pages=177–191 |jstor=41206885 }}}}

David Dalby brought up a 1941 reference dating the term to 1815. The apparent notation "we arrived ok" appears in the hand-written diary of William Richardson traveling from Boston to New Orleans about a month after the Battle of New Orleans.{{sfn|Heflin|1941|p=90}} However, Frederic Cassidy asserts that he personally tracked down this diary, writing:

{{blockquote|After many attempts to track down this diary, Read and I at last discovered that it is owned by the grandson of the original writer, Professor L. Richardson, Jr., of the Department of Classical Studies at Duke University. Through his courtesy we were able to examine this manuscript carefully, to make greatly enlarged photographs of it, and to become convinced (as is Richardson) that, whatever the marks in the manuscript are, they are not OK.{{sfn|Cassidy|1981}}}}

Similarly, H. L. Mencken, who originally considered it "very clear that 'o. k.' is actually in the manuscript",{{sfn|Wait|1941}} later recanted his endorsement of the expression, asserting that it was used no earlier than 1839. Mencken (following Read) described the diary entry as a misreading of the author's self-correction, and stated it was in reality the first two letters of the words a h[andsome] before noticing the phrase had been used in the previous line and changing his mind.{{sfn|Mencken|1945|p=275}}

Another example given by Dalby is a Jamaican planter's diary of 1816, which records a black slave saying "Oh ki, massa, doctor no need be fright, we no want to hurt him".{{cite news |first=David |last=Dalby |date=8 January 1971 |title=O.K., A.O.K and O KE; The Remarkable Career Of an Americanism That Began in Africa |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1971/01/08/archives/ok-aok-and-o-ke-the-remarkable-career-of-an-americanism-that-began.html |access-date=10 September 2013 |newspaper=The New York Times |page=31}}
{{*}}{{cite news |first=David |last=Dalby |title=The Etymology of O.K. |newspaper=The Times |date=14 January 1971}} Cassidy asserts that this is a misreading of the source, which actually begins "Oh, ki, massa ...", where ki is a phrase by itself:

{{blockquote|In all other examples of this interjection that I have found, it is simply ki (once spelled kie). As here, it expresses surprise, amusement, satisfaction, mild expostulation, and the like. It has nothing like the meaning of the adjective OK, which in the earliest recorded examples means 'all right, good,' though it later acquires other meanings, but even when used as an interjection does not express surprise, expostulation, or anything similar.{{sfn|Cassidy|1981}}}}

Whether this word is printed as OK, Ok, ok, okay, or O.K. is a matter normally resolved in the style manual for the publication involved. Dictionaries and style guides such as The Chicago Manual of Style and The New York Times Manual of Style and Usage provide no consensus.{{cite web|url=http://www.grammarphobia.com/blog/2008/09/im-ok-youre-okay.html |title=I'm OK, you're okay |publisher=Grammarphobia |date=11 September 2008 |access-date=12 June 2011}} Whilst most variants have descended from the root "OK", "okay" predominates in edited English as it permits easier modification (e.g. by pluralising).{{Cite encyclopedia |year=2022 |title=okay; OK; O.K. |encyclopedia=Garner's Modern English Usage |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxfordshire |url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/acref/9780197599020.001.0001/acref-9780197599020-e-6402 |url-access=subscription |access-date=2025-01-15 |last=Garner |first=Bryan A. |edition=5th}}

{{More citations needed|section|date=June 2022}}

{{notelist}}

{{Main|OK gesture}}

File:OK Sign.jpg

In the United States and much of Europe a related gesture is made by touching the index finger with the thumb (forming a rough circle) and raising of the remaining fingers.Armstrong, Nancy & Melissa Wagner. (2003) Field Guide to Gestures: How to Identify and Interpret Virtually Every Gesture Known to Man. Philadelphia: Quirk Books. It is not known whether the gesture is derived from the expression, or if the gesture appeared first. The gesture was popularized in the United States in 1840 as a symbol to support then-presidential candidate and incumbent vice president Martin Van Buren. This was because Van Buren's nickname, Old Kinderhook, derived from his hometown of Kinderhook, NY, had the initials O.K. Similar gestures have different meanings in other cultures, some offensive, others devotional.[https://www.aol.com/article/2010/07/26/dangerous-body-language-abroad/19554303/ Dangerous Body Language Abroad] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170425000711/https://www.aol.com/article/2010/07/26/dangerous-body-language-abroad/19554303/ |date=25 April 2017 }}, by Matthew Link. Posted 26 July 2010 01:00 PM. Retrieved on 17 November 2012[http://www.maria-brazil.org/brazilian_body_language_obscene.htm Body Language. Obscene, to be used with extreme moderation!] Retrieved on 17 November 2012

File:Notepad Font selection.png

File:Msxbasic.png for user input in MSX BASIC was {{samp|Ok}}|alt=A blue screen with white text: "MSX BASIC version 3.0 / Copyright 1988 by Microsoft / 23414 Bytes free / Disk BASIC version 1.0 / Ok" and a square representing the cursor. On the bottom line, "color auto goto list run".]]

OK is used to label buttons in modal dialog boxes such as error messages or print dialogs, indicating that the user can press the button to accept the contents of the dialog box and continue. When the dialog box contains only one button, it is almost always labeled OK. When there are two buttons, they are most commonly labeled OK and Cancel. OK is commonly rendered in upper case and without punctuation: OK, rather than O.K. or Okay. The OK button can probably be traced to user interface research done for the Apple Lisa.{{cite web|url=http://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?project=Macintosh&story=Do_It.txt&topic=Lisa |title=Apple user interface designers pick OK |publisher=Folklore.org |date=17 July 1980 |access-date=12 June 2011}}

The Forth programming language prints ok when ready to accept input from the keyboard. This prompt is used on Sun, Apple, and other computers with the Forth-based Open Firmware (OpenBoot). The appearance of ok in inappropriate contexts is the subject of some humor.

{{cite conference

|conference=[LISA '99] |title=The C Days of Y2K

|url=http://www.usenix.org/publications/library/proceedings/lisa99/y2k.html

|publisher=USENIX

|date=23 November 1999

|access-date=21 February 2011

}}

In the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), upon which the World Wide Web is based, a successful response from the server is defined as OK (with the numerical code 200 as specified in RFC 2616). The Session Initiation Protocol also defines a response, 200 OK, which conveys success for most requests (RFC 3261).

Some Linux distributions, including those based on Red Hat Linux, display boot progress on successive lines on-screen, which include [ OK ].

Several Unicode characters are related to visual renderings of OK:

• {{unichar|1F197|SQUARED OK}}
• {{unichar|1F44C|OK HAND SIGN}}
• {{unichar|1F44D|THUMBS UP SIGN}}
• {{unichar|1f592|REVERSED THUMBS UP SIGN}}
• {{unichar|1F646|FACE WITH OK GESTURE}}

{{reflist|30em}}

{{refbegin|30em}}

• {{cite web|last=Adams|first=Cecil|title=What does "OK" stand for?|url=http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/503/what-does-ok-stand-for|work=The Straight Dope|access-date=11 September 2013|author-link=Cecil Adams|date=1 January 1985}}
• {{cite journal|last=Badger|first=Herbert Andrew|title=A Descriptive Grammar of Mississippi Choctaw|year=1971|publisher=University of Southern Mississippi|oclc=30845851}}
• {{cite journal|last=Beath|first=Paul L.|title='O.K.' in Radio Sign Language|journal=American Speech|date=October 1946|volume=21|issue=3|page=235|jstor=486779}}
• {{cite web|last=Beaver|first=David|title=Not OK|author-link=David Beaver|date=20 February 2011 |work=Language Log |url=http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=2979 |access-date=10 December 2014}}
• {{cite book|last=Byington|first=Cryus|year=1870|title=Grammar of the Choctaw Language|publisher=McCalla & Stavely |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=n1xiSjMTpQgC&q=cyrus+byington}}
• {{cite book|last=Byington|first=Cyrus|title=A Dictionary of the Choctaw Language|year=1915|publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office|url=https://archive.org/details/choctawlanguag00byinrich|author-link=Cyrus Byington}}
• {{cite journal|last=Cassidy|first=Frederic G.|title=OK—Is It African?|journal=American Speech|date=Winter 1981|volume=56|issue=4|pages=269–273|jstor=455123|doi=10.2307/455123}}
• {{cite journal|last=Eubanks|first=Ralph T.|title=The Basic Derivation of 'O.K.'|journal=American Speech|date=October 1960|volume=35|issue=3|pages=188–192|jstor=453884|doi=10.2307/453884}}
• {{cite web|last=Fay |first=Jim |title=The Choctaw Expression "Okeh" and the Americanism "Okay" |url=http://www.illinoisprairie.info/chocokeh.htm |publisher=Illinois Prairie |access-date=11 September 2013 |date=14 July 2007|url-status=unfit |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101224185657/http://www.illinoisprairie.info/chocokeh.htm |archive-date=24 December 2010}}
• {{cite journal|last1=Greco|first1=Frank A.|last2=Degges, Mary|title=The Etymology of OK Again|journal=American Speech|date=Autumn–Winter 1975 |volume=50|issue=3/4|pages=333–335|jstor=3088024|doi=10.2307/3088024}}
• {{cite journal|last=Heflin|first=Woodford A.|title='O. K.', But What Do We Know about It?|journal=American Speech|date=April 1941|volume=16|issue=2|pages=87–95|jstor=487428|doi=10.2307/487428}}
• {{cite journal|last=Heflin|first=Woodford A.|title='O. K.' and Its Incorrect Etymology|journal=American Speech|date=December 1962|volume=37|issue=4|pages=243–248|jstor=453377|doi=10.2307/453377}}
• {{Cite report |author= Hopkins, Nicolas A.|title=The Native Languages of the Southeastern United States |url=http://www.famsi.org/research/hopkins/SouthEastUSLanguages.pdf |publisher=Foundation for the Advancement of Mesoamerican Studies, Inc |access-date=11 September 2012 |ref={{harvid|Hopkins}}}}
• {{cite book|title=The African Heritage of American English|year=1993|publisher=Indiana University Press|isbn=0253328381|last1=Holloway|first1=Joseph E.|last2=Vass|first2=Winifred Kellersberger|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/africanheritageo00holl}}
• {{cite journal|last1=Levin|first1=Harry|author-link=Harry Levin|last2=Gray, Deborah|title=The Lecturer's OK|journal=American Speech|date=Autumn 1983|volume=58|issue=3|pages=195–200|jstor=455226|doi=10.2307/455226}}
• {{cite journal|last=Matthews|first=Albert|title=A Note on 'O.K.'|journal=American Speech|date=December 1941|volume=16|issue=4|pages=256–259|jstor=486564|doi=10.2307/486564}}
• {{cite book|last=Mencken|first=H. L.|author-link=H. L. Mencken|title=The American Language|year=1936|publisher=Alfred A. Knopf|location=New York|isbn=0394400755|pages=206–207|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zh7Ma1SCthQC |edition=4th}}
• {{cite journal|last=Mencken|first=H. L.|title='O. K.,' 1840|journal=American Speech|date=April 1942|volume=17|issue=2|pages=126–127|jstor=486458|doi=10.2307/486458}}
• {{cite book|last=Mencken|first=H. L.|title=The American Language: Supplement I|url=https://archive.org/details/americanlanguage01menc|url-access=registration|year=1945|publisher=Alfred A. Knopf|location=New York|isbn=0394400763}}
• {{cite magazine|last=Mencken |first=H. L. |title=The Life and Times of O.K. |magazine=The New Yorker |pages=57–61| date=September 24, 1949 |publication-date=1 October 1949 |url=https://www.newyorker.com/archive/1949/10/01/1949_10_01_063_TNY_CARDS_000221526}}
• {{cite journal|last=McMillan|first=B.|title='O.K.,' A Comment|journal=American Speech|date=April 1942|volume=17|issue=2|page=127|jstor=486459}}
• {{cite journal|last=Pound|first=Louise|title=Some Folk-Locutions|journal=American Speech|date=December 1942|volume=17|issue=4|pages=247–250|jstor=487190|author-link=Louise Pound|doi=10.2307/487190}}
• {{cite journal|last=Pound|first=Louise|title=Two Queries|journal=American Speech|date=October 1951|volume=26|issue=3|pages=223–224|jstor=453088|doi=10.2307/453088}}
• {{cite journal|last=Pyles|first=Thomas|title='Choctaw' Okeh Again: A Note|journal=American Speech|date=May 1952|volume=27|issue=2|pages=157–158|jstor=454369}}
• {{cite magazine|last=Read|first=Allen W.|author-link=Allen Walker Read|title=The Evidence on O.K.|magazine= Saturday Review of Literature |pages=3–4, 10–11| date=19 July 1941}}
• {{cite journal|last=Rife|first=J. M.|title=The Early Spread of "O. K." to Greek Schools|journal=American Speech|date=October 1966|volume=41|issue=3|page=238|jstor=454033}}
• {{cite book|last=Smyth|first=J. F. D.|title=A Tour in the United States of America|year=1784|publisher=G. Robinson|isbn=9780665412226|url=https://archive.org/stream/cihm_41222/cihm_41222#page/n151/mode/2up/search/%22great+fifh%22}}
• {{cite journal|last=Wait|first=William Bell|title=Richardson's 'O. K.' of 1815|journal=American Speech |date=April 1941|volume=16|issue=2|pages=136|jstor=487427|author-link=William Bell Wait|doi=10.2307/487427}}
• {{cite journal|last=Walser|first=Richard|title=A Boston "O.K." Poem in 1840|journal=American Speech |date=May 1965|volume=40|issue=2|pages=120–126|jstor=453718|doi=10.2307/453718}}
• {{cite journal|last=Weber|first=Robert|title=A Greek O.K.|journal=American Speech|date=April 1942 |volume=17|issue=2|pages=127–128|jstor=486460}}

{{refend}}

• Metcalf, Allan. (2011). OK: The Improbable Story of America's Greatest Word. Oxford University Press, Oxford. {{ISBN|978-0-19-537793-4}}
• {{cite book|last1=Betz|first1=Emma|last2=Deppermann|first2=Arnulf|last3=Mondada|first3=Lorenza|last4=Sorjonen|first4=Marja-Leena|year=2021|title=OKAY across Languages: Toward a comparative approach to its use in talk-in-interaction|publisher=John Benjamins|doi=10.1075/slsi.34|isbn=9789027260284|series=Studies in Language and Social Interaction 34|hdl=10138/339675|s2cid=243148719}}

{{Wiktionary|OK}}

{{Commons category|OK}}

• [https://www.vox.com/videos/2018/9/12/17850662/why-we-say-ok-okay Why we say "OK"] - Vox News produced video
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20101224185657/http://www.illinoisprairie.info/chocokeh.htm The Choctaw Expression Okeh and the Americanism Okay]
• [http://wishydig.blogspot.com/2007/08/ok-lets-continue.html Ok. Let's continue.]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20131102022300/http://www.npr.org/programs/morning/features/patc/ok/ NPR: The Origin of OK (audio)]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20071018210748/http://alt-usage-english.org/excerpts/fxokxxxx.html FAQ: "OK"]
• [https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-12503686 BBC: How 'OK' took over the world]. Retrieved 18 February 2011.

{{Authority control}}

Category:American English words

Category:English words

Category:Interjections

Category:Slang

Category:Martin Van Buren