<P> 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, in the journal American Speech in 1963 and 1964 . 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 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: </P> <P> The abbreviation fad began in Boston in the summer of 1838...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 ." </P> <P> 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". </P> <P> The term appears to have achieved national prominence in 1840, when supporters of the Democratic political party claimed during the 1840 United States presidential election that it stood for "Old Kinderhook", a nickname for a Democratic presidential candidate, Martin Van Buren, a native of Kinderhook, New York, who was Andrew Jackson's protégé . "' Vote for OK' was snappier than using his Dutch name ." In response, Whig opponents attributed OK, in the sense of "Oll Korrect," to Andrew Jackson's bad spelling . 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 . </P>

Where does the word o.k. come from