Description
Book SynopsisIt is said to be the most frequently spoken (or typed) word on the planet, more common than an infant''s first word ma or the ever-present beverage Coke. It was even the first word spoken on the moon. It is OK - the most ubiquitous and invisible of American expressions, one used countless times every day. Yet few of us know the secret history of OK - how it was coined, what it stood for, and the amazing extent of its influence.Allan Metcalf here traces the evolution of America''s most popular word, writing with brevity and wit, and ranging across American history with colourful portraits of the nooks and crannies in which OK survived and prospered. He describes how OK was born as a lame joke in a newspaper article in 1839, used as a supposedly humorous abbreviation for oll korrect (i.e, all correct), but should have died a quick death, as most clever coinages do.However OK was swept along in a nineteenth-century fad for abbreviations, was appropriated by a presidential campaign (one of
Trade Reviewwonderfully crafted biography of the world's hardest working word. * Sunday Telegraph *
Ok provides a beguiling perspective upon linguistic serendipity * The Independent *
intriguing. * Mail on Sunday 2 *
Table of ContentsPrologue: The Oddity of OK Chapter 1: The Joke Chapter 2: Old Kinderhook Chapter 3: The Jackson Myth Chapter 4: Telegraphic OK Chapter 5: The Business of OK Chapter 6: OK in Literature Chapter 7: Presidential "okeh" Chapter 8: Okey-Dokey Chapter 9: The Practical OK Chapter 10: The Philosophical OK: Twentieth Century Chapter 11: The Psychological OK Chapter 12: The Philosophical OK: Twenty-first Century Epilogue: OK Around the World
