Abbreviation of all korrect (all correct的缩写 ) slang respelling of all correct (all correct的俚语重新拼写)
Although we use this word hundreds of times a week whether things are OK or not, we have probably rarely wondered about its history. That history is in fact a brief one, the word being first recorded in 1839, though it was no doubt in circulation before then. Much scholarship has been expended on the origins of OK, but Allen Walker Read has conclusively proved that OK is based on a sort of joke. Someone pronounced the phrase all correct as oll (or orl ) correct, and the same person or someone else spelled it oll korrect, which abbreviated gives us OK. This term gained wide currency by being used as a political slogan by the 1840 Democratic candidate Martin Van Buren, who was nicknamed Old Kinderhook because he was born in Kinderhook, New York. An editorial of the same year, referring to the receipt of a pin with the slogan O.K., had this comment: “frightful letters . . . significant of the birth-place of Martin Van Buren, old Kinderhook, as also the rallying word of the Democracy of the late election, ‘all correct’ . . . Those who wear them should bear in mind that it will require their most strenuous exertions . . . to make all things O.K.” 虽然我们一星期都要使用这个词达上百次来表示事情状况的行或不行，但我们可能很少有人去探究这个词的历史。实际上，这个词的历史并不长，它第一次被记录是在1839年，但毫无疑问这个词在此之前就流通使用了。对于OK 这个词的出处，已进行了很多研究， 但艾伦·沃克·里德最终证实OK 是出自一个什么笑话。 有人把all correct 这个词组发音成 oll （或 orl ) correct， 这个人或别人又把它拼写成oll korrect， 最后缩略成OK 。 这一名词术语被1804年的民主党总统候选人马丁·凡·布伦作为政治宣传口号而得到广泛运用。马丁的绰号是老金德胡克 ， 因为他出生于纽约州的金德胡克。同年有一篇社论，对于收到带有OK 口号的饰针之事作了以下评论： “可怕的字母，不仅对于说明马丁·凡·布伦的出生地纽约州的金德胡克很重要，而且它还是近期所举行大选的民主党的颇具号召力的政治宣传口号，“一切正确”…那些别着这些饰针的人还应该心中有数要想把一切事都办得令人满意得需要他们长期不懈的努力”
