How did the term "OK" originate, and do other languages have an equivalent? The Straight Dope claims the letters come from the phrase "Oll Korrect." The phrase comes from a curious fad for "comical abbreviations" that swept the USA in the 1830s and 1840s.
The estimable Oxford Dictionary concurs, while also noting that the term has several foreign equivalents: the Scots "och aye," the Greek "ola kala," the Choctaw Indian "Oke." Word Origins adds that "OK" is the most successful American phrase ever, having spread across the globe by the early 20th century.
