Why we say “OK”

Why we say “OK”

I Lead-in.

1)    What word is the most popular one in the English language?

2)    What English words do people understand even if they don’t know the language well?

II Vocabulary focus. Match the words to their definitions. Use three words in your sentences.

1.	recognizable	A.	in a planned way
2.	fad	B.	to judge the importance of something
3.	intentionally	C.	to remain in a place
4.	abbreviation	D.	statement that you received something
5.	to confirm	E.	a statement of agreement
6.	acknowledgement	F.	easy to identify
7.	manual	G.	to say something is correct
8.	to stick around	H.	an activity popular for a short period of time
9.	memorable	I.	deeply fixed
10.	embedded	J.	easily remembered
11.	affirmative	K.	a shortened form of a word or a phrase
12.	to evaluate	L.	a book giving instructions

III Watch the video and fill in the gaps with the words from the list. There are some words you don’t need to use.

papers; word; abbreviations; planet; messengers; messages; order; plans;

mean

There’s a two-letter 1) _____ that we hear everywhere. OK might be the most recognizable word on the 2) _____. It’s essential to how we communicate with each other, and even with our technology. You probably use it every day – even if you don’t notice it. But, what does OK actually 3) _____? And where did it come from?

OK actually traces back to an 1830s fad of intentionally misspelling 4) _____. Young “intellectual” types in Boston delighted those “in the know” with butchered coded 5) _____ such as KC, or “knuff ced” (enough said), KY  “know yuse” (no use), and OW  “oll wright” (all right) But thanks to a couple of lucky breaks, one abbreviation rose above the rest: OK, or “oll correct" (all correct). In the early 1800s, “all correct” was a common phrase used to confirm that everything was in 6) _____. Its abbreviated cousin started going mainstream on March 23, 1839, when OK was first published in the Boston Morning Post. Soon other 7) _____ picked up on the joke and spread it around the country, until OK was something everyone knew about, not just a few Boston insiders.

IV Watch the video and choose the correct option to complete the sentences.

1.    ______ Van Buren adopted OK as a nickname during his 1840 reelection campaign.

a) Singer         b) President     c) Journalist

2.    Van Buren’s _______ formed OK Clubs all over the country.

a) supporters    b) family         c)  sons       

3.    The campaign with OK was shown in the _____.

a)   radio       b)   press              c)  TV

4.    A clever nickname ______ Van Buren’s presidency. 

a)   didn’t save       b)     helped a lot     c)  was not connected to     

5.    OK became a part of functional use thanks to one invention: the ______.

a) telegraph    b) telephone         c)  television       

6.    The telegraph debuted in 1844, just five years ___ OK.

a) before    b) after c)  simultaneously       

7.    It transmitted short messages in the form of electric pulses, with combinations of _____ and dashes representing letters of the alphabet.

a) push        b) stop         c)  dots

8.    The two letters in OK were _____ to tap.

a) impossible      b) difficult         c)  easy

9.    OK became a standard acknowledgement of a transmission received, especially by operators on the expanding US ____. 

a) railroad        b) airlines         c)  army       

V Watch the video and choose the correct option to complete the sentences.

But there’s another big reason the two letters stuck around, and it’s not just because they’re easy to communicative/communication/communicate. It has to do with how OK looks. Or more specifically, how the letter K looks and sounds/soundly/profound. It’s really uncommon to start a word with the letter K in English — it’s ranked around 22nd in the alphabetic/alphabet/bet it. That rarity spurred a “Kraze for K” at the turn of the century in advertising and print, where companies replaced hard Cs with Ks in order to Katch your eye/lie/rye. The idea was that modifying a word — like Klearflax Linen Rugs or this Kook-Rite Stove, for example — would draw more attentive/attention/attentively to it.

And that’s still a visual strategy: We see K represented in modern corporate logos, like Krispy-Kreme and Kool-Aid. It’s the K that makes it so memorabilia/memorable/remembers.

By the 1890s, OK’s Bostonian origins were already mostly forgotten, and newsagent/newspapers/snipers began to debate its history — often perpetuating myths in the process that some people still believe. Like the claim that it comes from the Choctaw word ‘okeh,’ which means ‘so it is.’ OK’s beginnings had become obscure but it didn’t really matter anymore — the word was engraving/embedded/debate in our language.

Today, we use it as the ultimate “neutral affirmations/affirmative/confirmed it” Allan Metcalf wrote the definitive history of OK, and he explains that the word “affirms without evaluating,” meaning it doesn’t convey any feel/feelings/feels — it just acknowledges and accepts information. If you “got home OK,” it just means you were unharmed. If your “food was OK,” then it was acceptable. And “OK” confirms a changeable/change/exchange of plans. It’s is sort of a reflex/reflected/flexing at this point — we don’t even keep track of how much we use it. Which might be why OK was arguably the first word spoken when humanity/humanitarian/humans landed on the Moon.

VI Watch all part of the video and mark the sentences as True (T) or False (F). Correct the false statements.

1.    OK is a three-letter word that we hear everywhere.  

2.    OK might be the most recognizable word on the planet.  

3.    OK actually traces back to a 1830s fad in New York.  

4.    OK means “oll confirmed" (all confirmed).  

5.    OK became popular in1999, when it was first published in the Boston Morning Post.  

6.    OK was a nickname for a US president.  

7.    This nickname didn’t save Van Buren’s presidency.  

8.    OK came to functional use thanks to the invention of the telephone.  

9.    The telegraph transmitted short messages using dots and dashes to represent letters of the alphabet.  

10.OK was easy to tap out and very unlikely to be confused with anything else.  

11.It is important how OK looks.   

12.Many words in English start with the letter K— it’s ranked around 22nd in the alphabet.  

13.Companies replaced Cs with Ks in order to attract attention.  

14.We see K represented in modern corporate logos, like Krispy-Kreme and Kool-Aid.  

15.There are myths that OK comes from the Choctaw word ‘okeh,’ which means ‘so it is.’  

16.OK affirms with evaluating, it conveys speaker’s feelings.  

17.OK was the first word spoken when humans landed on Mars. FALSE. OK was the first word spoken when humans landed on the Moon.

VII OVER TO YOU. Find information about at least 2 other English words that are used all over the world. Why are those words so popular? Share your findings with other students.