OK

Okay, also OK, Ok, O.K. (English [ˌəʊˈkeɪ] or German [ˌoˈkeː]) is a colloquial word from American English that means everything correct.

The expression is considered the best-known word in the world and is used colloquially in a wide variety of languages - including German. The origin of this word was researched and discussed by linguists for a long time, until the US etymologist Allen Walker Read was able to prove in a series of articles in the journal American Speech in 1963 and 1964 that it is a kind of linguistic joke: a deliberate misspelling or more phonemic spelling ("oll correct") of the abbreviation for "all correct" (literally everything correct), in which nothing is correct. In addition, several folk etymologies exist.

History of the abbreviation OK

Allen Walker Read identified the first use of o.k. in the Boston Morning Post of March 23, 1839, in the sentence:

The fact that all correct was not abbreviated with AC but with OK corresponded to a fashion of those years to use abbreviations of wrong spellings ("oll korrect") on purpose, like KY for "know yuse" (no use 'zwecklos'), KG for "know go" (no go 'geht nicht') or NS for "nuff said" (enough said 'enough said').

Finger Sign

A finger sign for ok is a circle formed by thumb and index finger. This sign is used, for example, as a standardized dive sign. However, this finger gesture can also have other meanings, for example, it is understood among drivers and in many regions of the world (eg Brazil) as an insult. The closed circle represents the asshole in name-calling. The character was added to Unicode 6.0 in 2010 as an emoji L (U+1F44C) under the name "OK Hand Sign". To avoid falling into unpleasant traps due to the multiple meanings of the sign, it is advised to make the thumbs-up sign when in doubt. This sign is interpreted worldwide as positive approval.

Operation O-KKK

In 2017, 4chan spread the rumor that this finger gesture was an identifying sign of White Supremacists. The three outstretched fingers are said to represent the letter W, while the circle of thumb and forefinger, together with the palm of the hand, represents the letter P. WP is an abbreviation for "White Power." The spread of this rumor was called Operation O-KKK. KKK is an abbreviation for the Ku Klux Klan, which supports White Supremacy. Even the Swedish Defense Research Institute believed this rumor and published a list of hate symbols that included this finger sign. As a result, the finger sign spread, sometimes in reverse, similar to the "peek-a-boo game", in the far-right scene. The use by the Christchurch bomber in the courtroom gave this racist usage further notoriety.