Tuesday, April 6, 2010

OK




Hi, Guys!,


As far as I am concerned, there are many attempts to explain the origins of this curious colloquial expression OK.


The fisrt theory, that I am going to mention, has been supported by many scholars and even the Oxford dictionary, which points out that OK comes from the pronunciation of the initials of "all correct"/'ol koret/ (sorry because I have no phonetic symbols in my keyboard).

Secondly,the other theory with at least a degree of plausibility is that the term was originated among Black African slaves, and represents a word meaning 'all right, yes indeed' in various West African languages. Unfortunately, historical evidence enabling the origin of this expression to be finally and firmly established may be hard to unearth.

In addition, according to Oxford Dictionary, OK may derive from the Scots expression 'och aye', or the Greek ola kala ('it is good'), or the Choctaw Indian oke or okeh ('it is so'), or the French aux Cayes ('from Cayes', or even, a port in Haiti with a reputation for good rum) or au quai ('to the quay', as supposedly used by French-speaking dockers).


What do you think it is the best theory or the most probable one?


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