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Metcalf, Allan A.
Subjects
English language -- United States -- Etymology.
English language -- Etymology.
English language -- Usage.
Americanisms.
Browse Catalog
by author:
Metcalf, Allan A.
by title:
OK : the improbable ...
by call number:
427.973 M588o
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Metcalf, Allan A.
English language -- United States -- Etymology.
English language -- Etymology.
English language -- Usage.
Americanisms.
MARC Display
OK
: the
improbable
story
of
America
's
greatest
word
/ Allan Metcalf.
by
Metcalf, Allan A.
Oxford University Press, 2011.
Call #:
427.973 M588o
Subjects
English language -- United States -- Etymology.
English language -- Etymology.
English language -- Usage.
Americanisms.
ISBN:
9780195377934 (alk. paper)
Alternate title:
Okay
O.K.
Description:
xii, 210 p. ; 19 cm.
Notes:
Includes index.
Contents:
Introduction: the ABCs of
OK
-- A saturday morning in Boston -- 1840: Old kinderhook is
OK
-- Hoax: Andrew Jackson's misspelling -- Aesthetics: the look and sound of
OK
-- False origins -- The business of
OK
-- O.K. clubs -- The literary
OK
-- Oklahoma is
OK
-- Okey-dokey -- Modern
OK
literature -- The Practical
OK
-- The world and England -- The lifemanship
OK
-- The psychological
OK
-- The new American philosophy.
Summary:
"It is said to be the most frequently spoken (or typed)
word
on the planet, more common than an infant'
s
first
word
ma or the ever-present beverage Coke. It was even the first
word
spoken on the moon. It is '
OK
'-- the most ubiquitous and invisible of American expressions, one used countless times every day. Yet few of us know the secret history of OK--how it was coined, what it stood for, and the amazing extent of its influence. Allan Metcalf, a renowned popular writer on language, here traces the evolution of
America
's most popular
word
, writing with brevity and wit, and ranging across American history with colorful portraits of the nooks and crannies in which
OK
survived and prospered. He describes how
OK
was born as a lame joke in a newspaper article in 1839--used as a supposedly humorous abbreviation for 'oll korrect' (ie, 'all correct')--but should have died a quick death, as most clever coinages do. But
OK
was swept along in a nineteenth-century fad for abbreviations, was appropriated by a presidential campaign (one of the candidates being called 'Old Kinderhook'), and finally was picked up by operators of the telegraph. Over the next century and a half, it established a firm toehold in the American lexicon, and eventually became embedded in pop culture, from the 'I'm
OK
, You're
OK
' of 1970'
s
transactional analysis, to Ned Flanders' absurd 'Okeley Dokeley!' Indeed,
OK
became emblematic of a uniquely American attitude, and is one of our most successful global exports."--Book jacket.
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