---
title: "How OK became the most widely spoken word in the world"
id: "34942"
slug: "how-ok-became-the-most-widely-spoken-word-in-the-world"
permalink: "https://eay.cc/2018/how-ok-became-the-most-widely-spoken-word-in-the-world/"
published_at: "2018-09-18T07:48:52+00:00"
author: "Stefan Grund"
type: "post"
format: "standard"
tags: []
short_url: "https://eay.li/36r"
content_copy:
  - "https://twitter.com/eay/status/1041957958073167872"
  - "https://eay.social/@eay/100745682295830201"
---

# How OK became the most widely spoken word in the world

![Vorschaubild zum Video. Aktivieren, um das Video zu laden und abzuspielen.](https://eay.cc/wordpress/uploads/video-thumbnails/youtube/1UnIDL-eHOs.jpg)

([YouTube Direktlink](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1UnIDL-eHOs)) > Young Boston intellectuals in the early 1800s used a humorous code of abbreviated phrases, like “KC,” or “knuff ced”; “KY,” “know yuse”; and “OW,” “oll wright.” And while most of them eventually fell out of fashion, one abbreviation persisted: “OK,” or “oll korrect.”

Okay. (via [Kottke](https://kottke.org/18/09/how-did-ok-become-one-of-the-most-popular-words-in-the-world))