| Show W x I 1 0 UL aw or top all AO 14 N A 4 u NV k b N z R 53 4 rm 6 A A X g q M y 5 2 V 8 4 F x v 0 1 V 4 ug T 3 by ELMO SCOTT WATSON IN r OU hear it t everywhere you go for americans have almost forgotten I 1 JL ho how cosay yes resl it instead they say 0 kayl it lias has become an almost universally accepted symbol of assent it has al also become bec omea a similarly accepted symbol of approval whence when awe say anything Is oray O 0 ray kay or 0 XVI ac or okeh we mean that it Is good or satisfactory zot mot only has this triple spelling double 1 meaning expression already become common current in our language or if you prefer I 1 but it has also already undergone both abbreviation and inversion without apparently changing its meaning if you dont want to take oie he time to say 0 kayl kay ill or okeh I 1 just cut it down to okel oke I 1 accent on the 0 o and any american will understand at once what you y ou mean so much for the abbreviation ot of an expression pres slon so short that a further shortening seems impossible As forthe fop the inversion consider now the hypothetical casts case of an englishman coming to an american with this inquiry ili 1 I say old fellow what wha eVo do you am americans i a ricans mean when you say K 0 11 oh thail replies rep 1 les the helpful amerlean american als asan fin expression from the prize ring when a boxer Is knocked out we say the other fellow a it K X 0 11 but says the Br with a puzzled look on his face this was a little boy j I 1 heard answering a playmate who had asked him to come across the street and play with him I 1 heard him shout K 01 very plainly 11 ah that thail P replies the american ite he meant all right 1 11 you know we use the term 0 K t to mean all right or yes its pronounced okay O 0 kay well some of the boys just turn it around and use K 0 which Is pronounced kayo and it means the same thing clear enough it and the baffled murmurs I BW but the bilboa is no more baffled by this illogical example of our illogical everyday every day american speech than Is the etymologist who tries to run down the origin of the expression and to determine it into our language here are a few of the theories 1 0 olga aga 13 K NevIs kolT koff was a fascinating woman who is believed to have had an important influence on english history as a friend of the famous premier william VIII Iam gladstone it Is said that gladstone used to submit many important matters ta to her f for or her opinion and these generally returned to him with her initials 0 JC penned upon them I 1 2 in in santo domingo Is the town of aux cayes eproso pronounced 6 okay aay from which ell in colonial times the best tobacco and rum were imported clerks jt it Is eld in billing goods to to retailers maderise madei made iise us of the phonetic letters 0 K for the asale rb r in indicating that these goods cime came cayes and were therefore of the best i I 1 0 ans a famous chief of the sac and trobe 1 galans in ig iowa wa lie ile was affectionately re by the whites white sas as ole keokuk because he ha wf was i rs A good indian being unable to spell his name lie he made his signature by using blo initials 0 K and any paper which v had bad his OJ of 4 K Y was all right 4 back in civil war days orrin kendall was a member bembe ol 01 a battery raised among the board of trade ile he was also hend head of the b baking LT ing firm of 0 6 kendall and sons which furt aaen ire and cr crackers tor for the army on the the initials initial of 0 10 ac K tor for orrin kendall these crackers are said to have been F the t only ones the soldiers relished and their ex es pr sion these crackers are 0 K 11 soon developed develop op dinto into meaning these crackers are all right 5 in 1840 during the jamous famous hard elder cider and US cabin abin presidential cam campaign laign of gen I 1 11 enry Harrlson there was a rally it at ur af baita ma ialo ohio which was addressed by a number of prominent whigs whig including general harrison himself the farmers were largely represented at the ithe gaab gatherings brings and one of them had brought his constructed a plat farm w it gon or on which was farm for forthe the accommodation of his neighbors and nd wishing t to 0 the farmer was an ardent whig fl convey the impression that the farmers generally ally were whigs he be hung a banner above the platform plat forna on the banner were these words the farmers Is OR oil korrect there was also a hotel ai ohio operated by an ardent whig ahl wh abo U il placed ace di the letters 0 IC 11 over the entrance that it meant his hotel was all right taking tta ang those words from the or oil korrect Kor recy wagon in this samp same banner on the farmers cam campaign alan harrisons sons opponent a made lauch of bis r gilleg edt 1111 tera chand they the y circulated the lin in ohp while a commander aitor that garrison atory pr under tinder the im 0 K arnay endorsed his hij papers a T Y wilson W rw H Q N Vs 3 4 m william son pres slon that it was us tile the abbreviation for oil Nor korrect his way of spelling all correct 0 the origin of 0 K R meaning all right Is traced to andrew jackson in three di different derent ways one of them Is this in the court of records of simmer county tennessee for october 0 1 1700 appears the fact that on that date andrew jackson esq proved a bill of sale from hugh blugh mcgary to gasper mansker for a negro man which was 0 K it Is said that what appeared to be 0 K in the record may really have been a poorly penned 0 R which was the abbreviation I 1 used for ordered recorded that such a mistake due to bad penmanship might easily hare been made is further proved by the tact fact that hugh not high mcgary and caspar not gasper mansker ansher Al were two well known frontier characters of the time and both name lire are misspelled in the entry during the campaign of 1832 jacksons alleged alle gei illiteracy as in the case of harrison later was one of the chief butts of his opponents smith in a series of letters written to a maine paper under the name of major jack downing Is I 1 said to have originated the story that Jacks jackson endorsed his paper 0 IL under tinder the impression that it was the abbreviation for oil korrect As previously stated this same canard was al ar revived and used I 1 1840 the third wily way in which the origin of the v e la Is traced to J jackson ackson involves his friend ship with the famous choctow indian chief pushmataha jackson and had fought together against the creeks in 13 aind jackson fr frequently heard he indian chief use ase an expression IM sl to end all statements or to wina up it a conversation it was a andev na X colloquialism moaning caning Lu ehnts tints mp me or what I 1 said and as atalia pronounced it it sounded like okay or okeh la in rendering render ln it into english and in using it us As a symbol of approval jackson jack son is said to ha e translated it into the literal 0 K similar evidence to support the indian origin of the term Is contained in Byingt ons grammar of the choctaw language which gives vo okeh o keh as meaning it is so and in no other way ir if as it seems most highly probable the expression did originate in the choctaw language and pushmataha was principally responsible for its gift to the alte white man he Is worthy of more than passing comment in fact he Is worthy of being remembered much longer for other otheir things than for the more mere accident of his using an expression pres slon which became a common americanism for F or andrew jackson frequently expressed the kopini opinion on that he was the greatest and bravest indian lie ho had ever known and john randolph of roanoke in pronouncing a eulogy on him in the united states senate uttered the words re garding his wisdom his eloquence and his friendship for the whites that were afterward inscribed on his monument indian name was ach taha which means the sapling is ready or finished for him according to the biography biogy achy of of him in the handbook of american indians issued by the bureau of american ethnology he was born in noxubee county in mississippi in 1704 before he was twenty years of age he be distinguished himself in an expedition against the usages young pushmataha disappeared early eaily in the conflict that lasted all day end and on rejoining the choctaw warriors lie he was jeered at and accused of being a coward whereupon he replied let those laugh who can show more moie scalps sc alps than I 1 pan can saying this lie threw down the scalps of live of the enemy whom he had slain by himself later lie he became head of the or six ix towns district of the choctaws and exerted his powerful influence in promoting friendly relations with the whites in 1811 when tecumseh the great shawnee leader visited the choctaw to persuade them to join in hla his conspiracy against the americans opposed him so strongly that the choctaws remained ren iRined loyal to the united states during the war of 1812 it was influence which held them loyal to the americans when the creeks tried to persuade them to t enst cast their fortunes with the in a council held to decide what hait course ane choctaws hoc taws would pursue pushmataha made an eloquent speech in which he said the creeks were vere once our friends they have joined the english I 1 and we must now follow different trails when our fathers took the hand of washington they told him tile the choctaw would always be mends friends of his nation and pushmataha cannot be raise false to their promises I 1 nm am now ready to fight i both the english and the creeks and fight he did dudl I 1 at the head of WO warriors lors lie lia served under jackson in the pensacola campaign taking part in 24 battles and skirmishes in 1813 with about warriors varr lors he joined general geni claiborne and distinguished himself in the I 1 attack attach und and defeat of the crooks creeks under the famous NV eatherford at the hattle battle of holy ground in ill Ala alabama biana wh le ie aiding the Ame americal troops lie Is said 8 fild instituted such a rigid estem of discipline among his warriors that hey made it fine record as soldiers and won for tile title of the indian general e by western vestern union |
