ABSTRACT
There is no satisfactory etymology for okay. Some linguists claim that it derives from an abbreviation of oll korrect, a variant form of ‘all correct’; others that it was borrowed from the O.K. Club which was founded in 1840 by supporters of a presidential candidate who came from Old Kinderhook in New York; a few suggest that it is a variant of the Scottish expression Och aye; and Africanists have pointed out that many West African languages have expressions of agreement such as oki, oka and okai. Whatever the etymology, the word, which was first recorded in the early nineteenth century, is one of the most frequently used in the English language.
