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From: wfi@rti-sel.UUCP (William Ingogly)
Newsgroups: net.nlang,net.nlang.africa
Subject: Re: Derivation of O.K.
Message-ID: <256@rti-sel.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 17-Jun-85 09:39:08 EDT
Article-I.D.: rti-sel.256
Posted: Mon Jun 17 09:39:08 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 19-Jun-85 03:54:27 EDT
References: <280@mhuxj.UUCP>
Reply-To: wfi@rti-sel.UUCP (William Ingogly)
Organization: Research Triangle Institute, NC
Lines: 25
Xref: watmath net.nlang:3200 net.nlang.africa:52
Summary: 

In article <280@mhuxj.UUCP> daa@mhuxj.UUCP (ANSEN) writes:

>I just read that the word "Okay" stems from the
>Wolof word "wawkay", which means "by all means",
>or "certainly."  The word was brought into American
>English by slaves brought over from West Africa.
>Does anybody know more about this?  Does anybody
>know of any other possible sources of the use
>of "O.K." in English?

From Webster's New World Dictionary, 2nd College Edition:

   ... [orig. U.S. colloq.: first known use (March 23, 1839)
       by C. G. Greene, editor, in the Boston Morning Post, as
       if abbrev. for "oll korrect," facetious misspelling of
       all correct ...: popularized by use in name of Democratic
       O. K. Club (1840), in allusion to Old Kinderhook, native
       village of Martin Van Buren, whom the Club supported for
       a 2d term] ...

I also seem to recall reading somewhere when I was a child that
one source thought it had originated somehow with an American
Indian tribe ...

                        -- Cheers, Bill Ingogly