| Show wh 0 P autwin ut OK a 8 1 n our u hv ur L lannae Lanu an ua ae e F 4 ON al R 4 by ELMO SCOTT WATSON OU hear it everywhere you yon go for y americans have haie almost forgotten how bow to say yes instead they say okay O 0 kay it has become an almost universally accepted symbol of assent it has also become a similarly accepted symbol of approval when we say anything Is 0 kay or 10 0 E K or okeh we mean that it Is good or satisfactory not only has this triple spelling double meaning expression already become common currency in our language or it if you yon pre prefer ferl but it has also already undergone both abbreviation and inversion without apparently changing its meaning if you dont want to take the ume time to say okay O 0 kay I 1 or okeh I 1 just cut it down to oke accent on the ile 0 o and any american will understand at once what you mean so much for the abbreviation of an expression so short that a further shortening seems impossible As for the inversion consider now the hypothetical case of an englishman coming to an american with this inquiry 1 I say old fellow what do you americans mean when nhen you say K 0 OT r oh that replies the helpful amerlean american Is an expression from the prize ring when a boxer Is knocked out we say the other fellow wins by a K 0 11 put but says the with a puzzled look on his face this was a little e boy I 1 heard answering a playmate who had bad asked him to come across the street and play with him I 1 heard him shout K 0 very plainly oh replies the american lie he meant all right V you know we use the term 10 0 K 1 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 Str ordinary I 1 but the briton Is no more baffled by this illogical leal 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 who put it into our lang language aage here are a few of the theories 1 olga oiga K Neil Nevi was a fascinating rus flat elat woman who Is believed to have had bad an important influence on en english lish history as a friend of the famous premier william 1 R gladstone it Is said that gladstone used to submit many important matters to her for her opinion and these thee papers were generally returned to him with her initials 0 K penned upon them 2 in santo domingo is the town ton of aux cayes pronounced okay o kay from which in colonial times the best tobacco and rum ruin were imported clerks it Is fald ald in billing goods to retailers made use of the phonetic letters 0 K for the sake of brevity in indicating that these goods came from aux cayes and were therefore of the best quality 3 keokuk was a famous chief of thoe thedac sac anti and foxe indians in lona iowa ile he was affectionately referred to by the whites as ole keokuk because he was a good gond indian ileine unable to spell his name lie ande his signature by using film initials 0 K 11 and any paper which hid bad hi his 10 0 K was all right 4 back in civil chil war days orrin kendill kendall kend ill was as a member of a battery malsed amon among the board of trade trad in chicago ile ie was also heid head of the baking firm of 0 kendill kendall and sons rons which fur itil shed bread and crackers for the army on the crackers were the initials of 0 K for orrin kendall the era ekers are salt sald to hiie h ap ripen been the only ones the snI soldiers lers rell relished sheI and their ex pres slon nn these crackers cr ickers are 0 K N 11 soon sonn level aped into meaning cr arkers are all right 5 in 1810 1840 during the famous hard rider elder anti and log cabin presidential of PD Willi willimin fin henry harrison there was a whig rally at ur banat bana ohio which was BUS by a number of prominent ahl whigs s Inel tiding general himself the farmers were largely lari dy represented nl at the gatherings find and one of nf them hat had brought hil hi farm wagon on which wits constructed H n plat pint forta form fr for the of his neighbor the farmer wits tin nn ardent ehla and to convey the impression that the farmers gener ally were whigs lip hung a banner above th plat platform forin I 1 tn n the ohp banner were these words th fa banners Is oil it Korr korrect ert there was as also a n hote at springfield ohio operated hy by tin nn ardent witt who attlio the letters 0 K over trane explaining that it IL meant his him lintel wits nil all right or oil K are t enking those worm friem th banner li inner on the bartner m jin in this thin sam mm made much r his n illiteracy find they 11 1 I story that whelp it in it i army rl alti hl an r th 1 aa orl N f 0 7 F wilson A i 4 IV i 24 williarm william henria harrison pres slun that it was the abbreviation for OH burrett Kur rett his way of spelling AI ml Corre correct cL 0 the origin of 0 K meaning nil all right I 1 traced to andrew jackson in three different ways one of them Is this in the court of rec of if sumner mner county tennessee for october 0 6 appears the fact that on tint that late date andrew jackson proved a bill of sale from blugh mairy to gasper for a negro man ni in aich was 0 K it Is ald tint that what nhit tip ap peered too lie he 0 K in the record inay reilly really have licen been a poorly penned 0 it which was ins the ah ab used for ordered thit that such a i mistake ini stake due to load pennia mihl might easily have lieen made Is further proved by the fact tint that hush blugh not ailigh macary and caspar not asper mansker were pre two awn well known characters of the time and an h th narn ire misspelled in the entry the campH campaign ign of IS ISU jacksons allter all tei am n in the ra rae hiie e of harrison later inter wa ane sone of the ralef butts of if his opponent ct seln smith in a series of nf letters written to it 11 main melni paper under the name mino of nf major lack jack riv I 1 aid to hire have orl ignited the senry that nursed his film paper caper 0 K under finder the Impress loi hat it was ohp th abbreviation for oil korrect As previously stated this same ornit ird was a find ased ananin nc ln t flarrie ri 0 rhe third way lu in which hati the origin of the t Is traced to boin 1 v akson involves his film frien hip with the famous linc taW indian i jackson ind and hat hai aught together sether tn against the reeks in 1912 ir not nil it inken Ink hison mn heard he indian phi calel el se e an sjon sl SI to end ill hll sta natate t P ant too i I 1 fri mi up H it wits ns i 1 colloquialism meaning me or what I 1 said and as pushmataha pronounced alto it it sounded like okay or okeh in rendering it into english and in using it as a symbol of approval jackson Is said to have translated it into the literal 0 K similar evidence to support the indian origin of 0 the term Is contained in ByIngt ons grammar of the choctaw language which gives okeh o keh as meaning it Is so and in no other way 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 white man he Is worthy of more than passing comment in fact he Is IB worthy of b eing being remembered much longer for other things than for to the mere accident of his using an expression which became a common americanism for andrew jackson frequently expressed pressed er the opinion that he was the greatest and bravest indian he had ever known and john randolph of roanoke Hoa noke in pronouncing a eulogy on him in the united states senate uttered the words r regarding e his wisdom his eloquence and his friendship for the whites that were afterward inscribed on his monument indian name was ach taha taba which means the sapling Is ready or finished for him according to the biography of him in the handbook of american indians issued by the bureau iu of american ethnology he was birn in noxubee county in mississippi in I 1 before afore he was twenty years of age he distinguished himself in an expedition against the caes young pushmataha disappeared early to in the conflict that lasted all day and on rejoining the choctaw warriors lie was jeered at and accused of being a coward whereupon he replied let those who can show more scalps than I 1 van i an saying this lie he threw down the scalps of live dve of the enemy whom he be had slain by himself later l anter he became head of the or six towns district of the choctaws choctaw s and exerted his powerful influence in promoting ting friendly rela dons with the whites in 1811 when tecumseh the great shawnee shaw nee leader visited the choctaw to persuade ther then to join in his conspiracy again it the americans opposed him so ho tri ay iy that the choctaws choctaw s remained loyal to the united states during the war of 1812 it wits was influence alch which held them loyal loal to ohp americans when the creeks tried to per sinde them t to ritt rit t tir their with the lalli in if 11 council tiel I tu doride d aile ahat nurse course the choctaws would pursue made an speech in which lie said the creeks were fince our nur friends they him have joined the english and we e must now follow different trails dpn our fathers t took k the hand if if washington washingto n they told him the choctaw would always he be friends of his nation and a ha cannot be alip nl se to t their promises I 1 ani am now remly read to fight i ilist both abe the english and the anil and tight lie hr lid did at the head n of f warriors le ie served under jackson in the pensacola Ien earn cam align liis part it in 21 24 battles and skirmishes in sn will ali about warriors he joined gen an pral eral find distinguished himself in the and of the creeks under the anious fit at the battle 1 ittle of holy round lit in Alah ule sitting the american alro irones ps lie hp I 1 ia wild to have in instituted sueh a rigid asten rt it amon him warriors thai flint py inadi one gnp ree rd as soldiers soldier an annl I 1 I 1 won non for the title of the indian engral en pral 1 I 1 1 h W Wl tr irn N 1 va union ii |
