Okay Derived From OK
The word OK is frequently used in both English and other languages. Say OK to indicate your agreement. It's a good way to express how you're feeling, and if you use it in the proper way, it goes well with sarcasm and discontent. However, it can become perplexing when you realize that it also goes by the spellings OK, which is the letter O and K combined, and okay, which is a four-letter word spelled o-k-a-y. Why the distinction?
The two-letter variant is the original word, such as it is, even though it seems counterintuitive. The four-letter version followed. Since English uses a lot of abbreviations and contractions, it makes sense that a word with four letters, alright, would have been changed to a two-letter term since they have a similar phonetic sound.
Two-letter OK is believed to be a phonetic acronym for "all correct," which might have been written in jest as "oll korrect." In the same period, Martin Van Buren ran for president and urged everyone to "vote for OK" using the catchphrase "Old Kinderhook." A phonetic lengthening of the original term, four-letter alright, wouldn't appear on the scene for several decades.
