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THIS WEEK IN
MARCH 20 — MARCH 26
The expression “O.K.” appears in print for the first time. “OK” (or “okay” or “O.K.” or “ok”—pick your fighter) is one of the most common words in the English language—and even one of the most recognized words in the world, but it actually started out as a newspaper editor’s joke.
The first known print appearance of the expression “O.K.” was in the March 23, 1839 edition of the Boston Morning Post. It was part of a little joking exchange between one of the editors of that paper and another from the Providence Journal, because apparently that was something newspaper editors had time and space for back then. But here’s the salient moment:
. . . perhaps if he should return to Boston, via Providence, he of the Journal, and his train-band, would have the “contribution box,” et ceteras, o. k.—all correct—and cause the corks to fly, like sparks, upward.
Well . . . ok. “Even if it was not born in a stable, o. k. was anything but great in this first appearance,” writes Allan Metcalf in the definitive book on the subject. “It appeared in lowercase letters, befitting its lowly employment as an attempt at humor (and also not abbreviating a proper noun).” Turns out that people were just as corny in the 19th century as they are now; both deliberate misspellings and snappy initialisms were all the rage—which is how “all correct” became “oll korrect” became “o.k.” Lots of newspaper editors giggled into their coffee cups over that one.
But eventually, of course, we all started arguing over which version of the joke-misspelling was, in fact, the correct joke-misspelling. At least for once, no matter where you land, it’s really gonna be okay.
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MORE ON GRAMMAR
ESSENTIAL WISDOM “Grammar is a piano I play by ear. All I know about grammar is its power.” —JOAN DIDION
In other (old) news this week Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin, the first book in the United States to be banned on a national scale, is published (March 20, 1852) • “Tramp-poet” W.H. Davies loses his footing—and then his foot—trying to jump a freight train at Renfrew, Ontario (March 20, 1899) • Virginia Woolf and Leonard Woolf purchase a hand press for £19, with no experience in how to use it (March 23, 1917) • Percy Bysshe Shelley is expelled from Oxford for publishing a pamphlet entitled The Necessity of Atheism (March 25, 1811) • William Sydney Porter is imprisoned for embezzlement; by the time he is released he will be famous for writing stories under the pen name O. Henry (March 25, 1898) • United States Customs seizes 520 copies of Allen Ginsberg’s Howl and Other Poems on grounds of obscenity (March 25, 1957) • 23-year-old F. Scott Fitzgerald’s first novel, This Side of Paradise, is published (March 26, 1920) 
“Words are to be taken seriously. I try to take seriously acts of language. Words set things in motion. I’ve seen them doing it. Words set up atmospheres, electrical fields, charges. I’ve felt them doing it. Words conjure. I try not to be careless about what I utter, write, sing. I’m careful what I give voice to.” 
–TONI CADE BAMBARA Born this week in 1939 “If you would be a poet, write living newspapers. Be a reporter from outer space, filing dispatches to some supreme managing editor who believes in full disclosure and has a low tolerance for bullshit.” 
–LAWRENCE FERLINGHETTI Born this week in 1919
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