The 'O' Word

Roy Blount, JR. (love that man!) recently wrote an article entitled "The 'O' Word - The History of that most American of expressions." It was a critique of a book written by Allen Metcalf entitled "OK - The Improbable Story of America's Greatest Word."

Here is how he opened the article...

"We'd better address one textual issue up front, and without italics. This book opts for the iconic form: OK. This newspaper's (NY Times) style calls for the punctilious (and closest to the original) form: O.K.

My own strong preference is the form that looks most simply like a word, whose pronunciation is clear, and which doesn't call for an apostrophe in extensions like "okayed" and "okays".

Okay. (Capitalized only when it begins a sentence or in a sentence fragment like this or the preceding one.)

OK/O.K./okay so far?"

This reminded me of how complicated seemingly simple communication can be. This great Americanism from Old Kinderhook himself (maybe!) is still so complicated we don't always know what to do with it, or even what it means.

Often I will suggest something to friends in a text message, and get the response "OK" back. OK, what? OK, that is a good idea, and I will take your suggestion? OK, that is a bad idea, but let's roll with it anyway? OK, I had a totally different plan for dinner, but as usual (you selfish SOB) we will do what YOU want to do...OK OK???????