Dictionary

oll korrect en · INTJ

Etymology

A deliberate, humorous corruption of all correct, dating from the 1830s, recognized as one of several possible origins for the term OK.

Meanings

1. (dated, idiomatic) All right; okay.
   • [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. 2002, Tiffanie DeBartolo, God Shaped Hole: A Novel, →ISBN, page 54:
   • 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 October 28, Jeremy McCarter, “Party at the OK Corral”, in Newsweek, retrieved 23 Jan 2014:
   • "My Lord!" exclaimed Levin; "that's twenty-five dollars, ain't it, sir?" 1884, George Alfred Townsend, The Entailed Hat, or Patty Cannon's Times, Harper & Brothers, p. 182 (Google preview)
   • “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.” 2010, Orson Scott Card, Heartfire: The Tales of Alvin Maker, →ISBN, page 64:
   • 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.?) 1982 June 6, William Safire, “On Language”, in New York Times, retrieved 23 Jan 2014:
   • 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. 1869, Charles Godfrey Leland, Hans Breitmann's Barty and other Ballads, John Camden Hotten, p. 43 (Google preview)

Forms