Whether we say ‘O.K.’, or ‘okay’, the fact of the matter is that this word has become of use in every kind of conversation — from casual conversations to business conversations — and for a word so simple, the history that comes with this word is ever so complicated. Now, how did such a small word become so powerful?The many debates of originSometimes, there is no definite starting point for the history of something. But this is what ideally sparks debate. There are many speculations as to where the word may have originated, from a North Carolina slave in West Africa, to a Tennessee court record. But the most widely accepted explanation is the newspaper gag in Boston. Let’s look at each of these theories closely, O.K.?North Carolina An early transcript dated back to 1784, written by a North Carolina slave, depicts one of the earliest uses of the word, this time in a smaller shortcut: ‘kay.To quote the anonymous slave,“Kay, massa [master], you just leave me, me sit here, great fish jump up into da canoe, here he be, massa, fine fish, massa; me den very grad; den me sit very still, until another great fish jump into de canoe; but me fall asleep…”The court recordAccording to Tennessee historian, Albigence Waldo Putnam, Andrew Jackson apparently “proved a bill of sale from Hugh McGary to Gasper Mansker, for a Negro man, which was O.K.”. Felix S. Cohen, an American lawyer, also supported this claim.Historical diariesDavid Dalby, a writer, mentioned the use of the word in an 1815 diary of William Richardson, when he was travelling from Boston to New Orleans about a month after the Battle of New Orleans, in a phrase that read “we arrived o.k.”.Another similar example was a Jamaican planter’s diary which records a black slave saying “Oh ki, massa, doctor no need be fright, we no want to hurt him”. Ki was a phrase by itself. Dalby explained,“In all other examples of this interjection that I have found, it is simply ki (once spelled kie). As here, it expresses surprise, amusement, satisfaction, mild expostulation, and the like. It has nothing like the meaning of the adjective OK, which in the earliest recorded examples means ‘all right, good,’ though it later acquires other meanings, but even when used as an interjection does not express surprise, expostulation, or anything similar.”The newspaper gagThe 1839 Boston Morning Post paper is the most widely accepted explanation for the origin of the word. As the story goes, Boston papers got word of a trip organised by the Anti-Bell-Ringing Society. So, in the historical edition dated 23 March 1839, the then editor Charles Gordon Greene took a jab at the Providence Journal in a writing that would change history forever.“The above is from the Providence Journal, the editor of which is a little too quick on the trigger, on this occasion. We said not a word about our deputation passing “through the city” of Providence — We said our brethren were going to New York in the Richmond, and they did go, as per Post of Thursday. The “Chairman of the Committee on Charity Lecture Bells,” is one of the deputation, and perhaps if he should return to Boston, via Providence, he of the Journal, and his train-band, would have his “contribution box,” et ceteras, o.k.— all correct — and cause the corks to fly, like sparks, upward.”It may not seem that funny now, but according to historian Christopher Klein, “In an attempt at humor, young, educated elites deliberately misspelled words and abbreviated them for slang,” explaining 19th-century America was experiencing an abbreviation craze.Political boostA year later, in 1840, the word spiked thanks to a political campaign when Martin Van Buren, the 8th president of the U.S., faced a re-election campaign against William Henry Harrison, who later became president succeeding Buren. Harrison used slogans like “Tippecanoe and Tyler Too” and “Log Cabin and Hard Cider,” and Buren needed some slogans, too. His supporters came up with their own cry - ‘O.K.’, which was an abbreviation for “Old Kinderhook”, Buren’s nickname. Kinderhook is a town in New York State. Shortly after, “O.K. Clubs” were formed around the country.Harrison’s supporters also adopted the word with their own take. They used the expression to take a jab at Van Buren’s mentor, Andrew Jackson. O.K. to them was “ole kurrek”, which was Jackson’s spelling of “all correct”. According to them, Jackson was a bad speller.Sure enough, Buren lost the re-election, but the word stuck.Telegraph takes to the riseWith the invention of the telegraph in the 19th Century, ‘O.K.’ was on the rise. A telegraph machine is a device that transmits messages over long distances using electrical signals. It was the earliest form of long-distance communication. The telegraph used Morse Code to communicate, so ‘O.K.’ was written as “---...---”. The word was a short and quick way to confirm messages. The word became a shortcut to say “all clear” or “message received”.