oll korrect
Appearance
See also: Oll Korrect
English
[edit]Alternative forms
[edit]Etymology
[edit]A deliberate, humorous corruption of all correct, dating from the 1830s, recognized as one of several possible origins for the term OK.[1][2]
Interjection
[edit]- (idiomatic, dated) All right; okay.
- 1869, Charles Godfrey Leland, Hans Breitmann's Barty and other Ballads, John Camden Hotten, p. 43 (Google preview):
- It is a curious fact that the telegraph clerks in England and America employ the letters ‘O. K.,’ when they send a telegram that a message has been received Oll Korrect.
- 1884, George Alfred Townsend, The Entailed Hat, or Patty Cannon's Times, Harper & Brothers, p. 182 (Google preview):
- "My Lord!" exclaimed Levin; "that's twenty-five dollars, ain't it, sir?"
- "Oll korrect, Levin."
- 1982 June 6, William Safire, “On Language”, in New York Times, retrieved 23 January 2014:
- When faced with the problem of toponymic derivatives, I turn to Prof. Allen Walker Read, the etymologist who tracked down the source of O.K. (Oll korrect, not Old Kinderhook - stop writing me about this. O.K.?)
- 2002, Tiffanie DeBartolo, God Shaped Hole: A Novel, →ISBN, page 54:
- [E]verything about Jacob made me think of sex. Even fairly prosaic things—the way his lips puckered into a pout when he bit into his sandwich, the way he said certain words—minor words, like the abbreviated oll korrect, also known as okay.
- 2010 October 28, Jeremy McCarter, “Party at the OK Corral”, in Newsweek, retrieved 23 January 2014:
- Allan Metcalfe's new book . . . devotes a chapter to trying to explain why readers of the Boston Morning Post might have been amused to see “o. k.” used as a jokey abbreviation for “oll korrect,” an intentional misspelling of “all correct.”
- 2010, Orson Scott Card, Heartfire: The Tales of Alvin Maker, →ISBN, page 64:
- “Well, hell, that's the glory of English. You can speak it ten thousand different ways, and it's still O. K.”
“That barbarous expression! 'O. K.' What does this mean?”
“Oll Korrect,” said Calvin. “Making fun of people who care too much about how words get writ down.”
- 1869, Charles Godfrey Leland, Hans Breitmann's Barty and other Ballads, John Camden Hotten, p. 43 (Google preview):
Usage notes
[edit]- As is the case with the term OK, oll korrect may also be used as a noun, verb, adjective, or adverb.
References
[edit]- ^ What does "OK" stand for?, Cecil Adams, The Straight Dope (1985)
- ^ Allen Read, the Expert of 'O.K.,' Dies at 96, Douglas Martin, The New York Times Obituaries (2002 October 18)