WORD FACT

“OK” is the sole survivor of a group of abbreviations based on deliberate misspellings of common sayings. It stands for “all correct” / “oll korrect”.

Such abbreviations were popular in the 1830s and 40s. Other examples include:

OW → All right (“oll wright”)

NC → Enough said (“’nuff ced”)

KY → No use (“know yuse”)