It's a-OK

[englishstudent]

Hi,

Matilda's question about "time's a-flying"
reminds me to ask about the term
"It's a-OK" (or should it be "It's A-OK"?)
The "A" is just a regionalism, or
it is "A" as in "A grade" (top grade)?

Enquiring minds want to know. :)

Thanks

[tom slocombe]

Hi,
Matilda's question about "time's a-flying"
reminds me to ask about the term
"It's a-OK" (or should it be "It's A-OK"?)
The "A" is just a regionalism, or
it is "A" as in "A grade" (top grade)?
Enquiring minds want to know. :)
Thanks

I think the "a" stands for absolutely . It`s a colloquial expression which means perfectly/ absolutely OK.

[Red5]

It could also stand for ALL OK.

[dihen]

It could also stand for ALL OK.

Why did you use "could"? Why not "can"?

[Red5]

Because I was offering an opinion and not a fact. I wasn't sure if my suggestion was correct or not.

[englishstudent]

Thank you Tom Slocombe.
And for your opinion, Red 5. :)


Talking about "OK" I read somewhere that OK was
Andrew Jackson's (US President) way of saying "all correct".
Don't know if this is true.
(Jackson was supposed to be a poor speller.
I like a quotation attributed to him - "It is a damn poor mind that
can spell a word only in one way.") :)

[Coffa]

Thank you Tom Slocombe.
And for your opinion, Red 5. :)
Talking about "OK" I read somewhere that OK was
Andrew Jackson's (US President) way of saying "all correct".
Don't know if this is true.
(Jackson was supposed to be a poor speller.
I like a quotation attributed to him - "It is a damn poor mind that
can spell a word only in one way.") :)

There are many theories about the origin of OK, but in fact they are all speculative. The following web site gives a few:

"www.askoxford.com/asktheexperts/faq/aboutwordorigins/ok"

I have also heard it told that it comes from illiterate American dockers who would scrawl Orl Krect onto the side of ships after loading or unloading.

[bmass]

If would prefer to be overly grammatically correct, you should always use 'okay'. However it is not a largely important thing. With english there are countless rules that are hardly ever applied to writing or speech.

[englishstudent]

If would prefer to be overly grammatically correct, you should always use 'okay'. However it is not a largely important thing. With english there are countless rules that are hardly ever applied to writing or speech.

I am not arguing against your point above, but merely
making an observation. If "okay" was not a word "originally"
(meaning that it came into being as a way of writing OK),
it was probably considered a neologism at one point (this is
just my conjecture). Today, we see things like
"FYI", "ASAP" in office memos in the US.
It would be interesting to see how the language
changes especially with the younger generation using
"u" and "ur" in messages and emails. The "older" generation
may frown upon such usage, especially in formal communication
(and I have seen these exact words in office emails), but
the more people use it, the more the chances that it will
creep in whether we like it or not. I remember reading
some quotation about how the progress of the world
is dependent not on the logical or the reasonable people
but rather the unreasonable ones. At the risk of
digressing, the recent world events definitely seem to
bear this out. The unreasonable ones are the ones causing
changes in the world.

Another point I wanted to mention is that even though
I understand and agree that many rules are hardly applied
in writing or in speech, it is a challenge for non-native
speakers to know this, and so they tend to stick to learning
grammatically correct forms. And many a times, it is not
the choice of the student but the teacher makes them learn
these rather than the natural form, most likely because the
teacher him/herself is not familiar with the natural forms, having
studied/learned from books written and taught by an earlier
generation.

[englishstudent]

There are many theories about the origin of OK, but in fact they are all speculative. The following web site gives a few:
"www.askoxford.com/asktheexperts/faq/aboutwordorigins/ok"
I have also heard it told that it comes from illiterate American dockers who would scrawl Orl Krect onto the side of ships after loading or unloading.

Coffa, thank you very much for that link and for the dockers story.