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From: dmt@Glacier.ARPA (Mike Thornburg)
Newsgroups: net.nlang,net.nlang.africa
Subject: Re: Derivation of O.K.
Message-ID: <8694@Glacier.ARPA>
Date: Sun, 16-Jun-85 23:27:10 EDT
Article-I.D.: Glacier.8694
Posted: Sun Jun 16 23:27:10 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 23-Jun-85 05:47:22 EDT
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> 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?
> 
> Debra Ansen
> inhp4!mhuxj!daa

All I know about this comes from the book "Our Marvelous Native Tongue,"
by Robert Claiborne (Times Books, New York; 1983).  In chapter 9
(page 205 in my paperback copy) he states:

		Easily the prize Africanism in American English, whence
	it has passed into a dozen tongues around the world, is our
	omnipresent "O.K."  For years, lexicographers grappled with this
	strange term, evolving etymologies that were more ingenious than
	scholarly.  It was termed an abbreviation of the semiliterate
	expression "oll korrect," slanderously ascribed to President
	Andrew Jackson, or of "Old Kinderhook," the supposed nickname of
	another American president, Martin Van Buren (from his birthplace,
	a Dutch settlement on the Hudson).  Eventually, more thoughtful
	scholars established that "O.K." and various similar terms had been
	used as far back as the American Revolution--long before anyone
	had heard of either Jackson or Van Buren.  And its source was
	unquestionably one of various West African expressions such as o-ke
	or waw-ke, meaning O.K.

As this book is written for a popular audience, Mr. Claiborne does not
include references to the scholarly literature for the specific term "O.K."
However, he does mention David Dalby's essay in Thomas Kochman, ed.,
"Rappin' and Stylin' Out" (U. of Illinois, 1972); and Dillard, "All-
American English" (Random House, 1975) and "Black English" (Random House, 1972)
as sources for information on Africanisms in American English.
I have not had a chance to consult any of these references myself, so I do not
know if they contain anything germane to this discussion, but I am passing
their names on in case anyone else is interested in reading them.

				Mike Thornburg