Editing OK (section)

===Boston abbreviation fad===
The [[etymology]] that most reference works provide today is based on a survey of the word's early history in print: a series of six articles by [[Allen Walker Read]]<ref name="bailey">{{*}}{{cite book |contributor-first=Richard W. |contributor-last=Bailey |contribution=Allen Walker Read, American Scholar |last=Read |first=Allen W. |editor-last=Bailey |editor-first=Richard W. |title=Milestones in the History of English in America |publisher=American Dialect Society, Duke University Press |location=Durham, NC |year= 2002}}<br />{{*}}{{cite journal |first=Richard W. |last=Bailey |date=December 2004 |title=Allen Walker Read, American Scholar |pages=433–437 |journal=ETC: A Review of General Semantics |url=http://www.generalsemantics.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/61-4-bailey.pdf |access-date=6 February 2015 |archive-date=24 September 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924021442/http://www.generalsemantics.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/61-4-bailey.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref> in the journal ''American Speech'' in 1963 and 1964.<ref name=AHD/><ref name="read">*{{cite journal |last1= Read |first1= Allen W |year= 1963 |title= The first stage in the history of "O.K" |journal= American Speech |volume= 38 |issue= 1| pages= 5–27 |jstor=453580 |doi=10.2307/453580}}<br />*{{cite journal |last1= Read |first1= Allen W |year= 1963 |title= The second stage in the history of "O.K" |journal= American Speech |volume= 38 |issue= 2| pages= 83–102 |jstor=453285 |doi=10.2307/453285}}<br />*{{cite journal |last1= Read |first1= Allen W |year= 1963 |title= Could Andrew Jackson spell? |journal= American Speech |volume= 38 |issue= 3| pages= 188–195 |jstor=454098 |doi=10.2307/454098}}<br />*{{cite journal |last1= Read |first1= Allen W |year= 1964 |title= The folklore of "O.K." |journal= American Speech |volume= 39 |issue= 1| pages= 5–25 |jstor=453922 |doi=10.2307/453922}}<br />*{{cite journal |last1= Read |first1= Allen W |year= 1964 |title= Later stages in the history of "O.K." |journal= American Speech |volume= 39 |issue= 2| pages= 83–101 |jstor=453111 |doi=10.2307/453111}}<br />*{{cite journal |last1= Read |first1= Allen W |year= 1964 |title= Successive revisions in the explanation of "O.K." |journal= American Speech |volume= 39 |issue= 4| pages= 243–267 |jstor=454321 |doi=10.2307/454321}}</ref> He tracked the spread and evolution of the word in American newspapers and other written documents, and later throughout the rest of the world. He also documented controversy surrounding ''OK'' and the history of its [[False etymology|folk etymologies]], both of which are intertwined with the history of the word itself. Read argues that, at the time of the expression's first appearance in print, a broader [[fad]] existed in the United States of "comical misspellings" and of forming and employing acronyms, themselves based on colloquial speech patterns:

{{blockquote|The abbreviation fad began in Boston in the summer of 1838 ... and used expressions like OFM, "our first men," 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."{{sfn|Adams|1985}}}}

The general fad is speculated to have existed in spoken or informal written U.S. English for a decade or more before its appearance in newspapers. ''OK''{{'}}s original presentation as "all correct" was later varied with spellings such as "Oll Korrect" or even "Ole Kurreck".

The term appears to have achieved national prominence in 1840, when supporters of the [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic political party]] claimed during the [[1840 United States presidential election]] that it stood for "Old Kinderhook", a nickname for the Democratic president and candidate for reelection, [[Martin Van Buren]], a native of [[Kinderhook (town), New York|Kinderhook, New York]]. "Vote for OK" was snappier than using his Dutch name.<ref name="The Economist"/> In response, [[Whig Party (United States)|Whig]] opponents attributed ''OK'', in the sense of "Oll Korrect", to the bad spelling of [[Andrew Jackson]], Van Buren's predecessor. The country-wide publicity surrounding the election appears to have been a critical event in ''OK''{{'}}s history, widely and suddenly popularizing it across the United States.

Read proposed an etymology of ''OK'' in "Old Kinderhook" in 1941.{{sfn|Read|1941}} The evidence presented in that article was somewhat sparse, and the connection to "Oll Korrect" not fully elucidated. Various challenges to the etymology were presented; e.g., Heflin's 1962 article.{{sfn|Heflin|1962}} However, Read's landmark 1963–1964 papers silenced most of the skepticism. Read's etymology gained immediate acceptance, and is now offered without reservation in most dictionaries.<ref name=AHD>{{cite web |title=OK or o·kay |url=https://www.ahdictionary.com/word/search.html?q=OK |work=American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language |publisher=Houghton Mifflin}} (good summary of the results of Read's six articles)</ref> Read himself was nevertheless open to evaluating alternative explanations:

{{blockquote|Some believe that the Boston newspaper's reference to OK may not be the earliest. Some are attracted to the claim that it is of American-Indian origin. There is an Indian word, okeh, used as an affirmative reply to a question. Mr Read treated such doubting calmly. "Nothing is absolute," he once wrote, "nothing is forever."<ref name="The Economist">{{cite news|title=Allen Read |url=https://www.economist.com/node/1403400 |access-date=29 December 2014 |newspaper=[[The Economist]] |date=24 October 2002}}</ref>}}