The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-08-09
THE ORIGIN OF go. K.n
Suggestion that Jackson Got His Abbrevi-
alton from the Choctaw.
American Magazine of History.

American Magazine of History.
In the language of the Choctaw Indians one
of e most frequently recurring expressions is
the emphatic oke with which an affirmation or
denial is concluded. This oke pronounced with
strong accent on the last syllable) is one of the
substitutes for the cOpulatve verb to be- which
is wanting in Choctaw. Oke. as pronounced in
Choctaw, has exactly the same sound as the al
phabetic pronunciation of the letters o. K. in
English.
The meaning of the expression, as nearly as it
can be conveyed in English, is: That is true;
that is all So" A few examples out of many
that might be cited will illustrate this
THE Choctaw Indian is a good fellow" is
expressed thus Hattack api huma Chahta
achukmah oke, in which halifax api huma means
Indian LITERALLY, man body-redl aehukmah
means good" ana oke is the copulative express
sion, lit is So" In Rev. Cyrus Byingtons Choc-
taw New Testament the first sentence of Matt
v, Is: Eye the salt of the EARTH" is: Gakni in
huppi huchchia hoke, literally: the earth its
salt ye; that is So"
To General Andrew Jackson is attributed the
introduction of the Choctaw word into
Anglo American speech. Before the warof 1872
in voyages up and down the Mississippi, and in
trading expeditions overland from Nashville
Tenn, to Natchez, Miss. through the Choctaw
Nation, he was brought into frequent communi-
cation with the Choctaws.
General Jackson, everybody knows, was
prone to the use of downright ana energetic
methods of assertion. Hearing this emphatic
Oke so frequently uttered by the Choctaw peO-
pie, he learned the meaning conveyed by it 10
the Choctaw mind, and appropriated it. out Of
hand, to his own purpose. From him it passed
over to the multitude. This account of the orr
gin of o. K. has been current in the South for
many years If not true, it is, TO say the least
ben trovato.
No one who has ever read an autograph letter
of General jackson will easily credit the story
that he was in the habit, when he was President
of the United States. of indorsing, i'll katem
blute, applications for Office with the letters 0.
K, under the belief that these were the proper
initials for 'all correct" jackson was no
scholar; but he was not so grossly ignorant
of English photography as to fall into
a blunder of that sort. He may have Endorsed
documents with the letters o. K. as jocular
symbol of his favorte Choctaw expression. The
story that these letters were seriously intended
by him as an abbreviation of ''oll korrect" was
probably, as Mr.. George Bancroft suggests, an
a posteriori invention of the enemy-to wit, the
Whigs-during the hot political contests in the
days of the roaring 40s
That the abbreviation o. K. was coined by
jackson himself and used by him long years
before it passed into current slang, finds curious
records of Sumner county, Tennessee, quoted by
Parton in his Life of Jackson" vol l. p 1856
''Oct 6, 1890. AndrewJackson, Esq, proved
bill of sale from Hugh McGary to Casper
Mansker for a negro man, which was O. K"
pa common Weste n mistake adds Mr. Par
ton, ''for O. r., which means ordered recorded
Hence, perhaps, the saying O. K."l
Is it not more likely that the o. X of this
entry was suggested by Jackson himself as
brief way of saying, after the Choctaw fashion,
that the claim had been legally made outl