OK? OK!

March 23 is an important date for this reason: It's the birthday of that indispensable, practically international term "OK." The well-researched story of its origin begins with a popular trend, in the mid-1800s, of misspelling familiar phrases and then basing their acronyms on those misspellings. "No go," for example, was "k.g." (from "know go"). Well, on March 23, 1839, the Boston Morning Post ran a facetious article about a tongue-in-cheek group called the Anti-Bell Ringing Society. It said, in part, "The 'Chairman of the Committee of 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." So "o.k." stood for "oll korrect" ~ or, as it was appropriated and used in the 1840 election, for candidate Martin van Buren's nickname, Old Kinderhook: http://mentalfloss.com/article/50042/whats-real-origin-ok