.:ArE yOu Ok?:.

That is the question, isn't it? Are you ok? What is 'OK'? Two letters, sure. But it's used so much in conversation, it's almost annoying. You hear 'OK' and you think 'everything is fine'. But is it truly?

According to popular belief, the saying OK comes from one student misspelling 'all correct'. It's hard to believe that something we use all the time today comes from one child's mistake, a spelling mistake no less. And why these two letters? You would think that this student would at least know that all starts with an A and not an O. But it seems I have overestimated either the ability of this student or the teaching capabilities of his teacher.

And that is where this history is all wrong. Indeed, OK stands for "oll korrect" a misspelling of "all correct". However, it was not a child's mistake. OK is the results of a fad for comical abbreviations that flourished in the late 1830s and 1840s.

The whole story is here (courtesy of The Straight Dope website):

The abbreviation fad began in Boston in the summer of 1838 and spread to New York and New Orleans in 1839. The Boston newspapers began referring satirically to the local swells as OFM, "our first men," and used expressions like NG, "no go," GT, "gone to Texas," and SP, "small potatoes."

Many of the abbreviated expressions were exaggerated misspellings, a stock in trade of the humorists of the day. One predecessor of OK was OW, "oll wright," and there was also KY, "know yuse," KG, "know go," and NS, "nuff said."

Most of these acronyms enjoyed only a brief popularity. But OK was an exception, no doubt because it came in so handy. It first found its way into print in Boston in March of 1839 and soon became widespread among the hipper element.

It didn't really enter the language at large, however, until 1840. That's when Democratic supporters of Martin Van Buren adopted it as the name of their political club, giving OK a double meaning. ("Old Kinderhook" was a native of Kinderhook, New York.)

OK became the warcry of Tammany hooligans in New York while beating up their opponents. It was mentioned in newspaper stories around the country.

Van Buren's opponents tried to turn the phrase against him, saying that it had originated with Van Buren's allegedly illiterate predecessor, Andrew Jackson, a story that has survived to this day. They also devoted considerable energy to coming up with unflattering interpretations, e.g., "Out of Kash, Out of Kredit, and Out of Klothes."

Newspaper editors and publicists around the country delighted in coming up with even sillier interpretations-- Oll Killed, Orfully Konfused, Often Kontradicts, etc.--so that by the time the campaign was over the expression had taken firm root nationwide.

http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/503/what-does-ok-stand-for