We use many phrases without thinking about what they really mean or their origins. Does a day (or hour) go by that you don’t use the word “OK?” But what does it really mean? Do “O” and “K” constitute an acronym? If so, what do the letter mean, and when did we start using the phrase “OK.”

Etymologists have long researched and argued about OK’s origins. A one page article in the Smithsonian shares recent research revealing “How One Marn Discovered the Obscure Origins of the Word ‘OK.”