Introduction: the ABCs of OK -- A saturday morning in Boston -- 1840: Old kinderhook is OK -- Hoax: Andrew Jackson's misspelling -- Aesthetics: the look and sound of OK -- False origins -- The business of OK -- O.K. clubs -- The literary OK -- Oklahoma is OK -- Okey-dokey -- Modern OK literature -- The Practical OK -- The world and England -- The lifemanship OK -- The psychological OK -- The new American philosophy
Summary
It 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, a renowned popular writer on language, here traces the evolution of America's most popular word, writing with brevity and wit, and ranging acro
