The following happened before I met my future husband:

He was a Sargent and an Arial photographer in the U.S. Army. As such, he sat behind the pilot so that he could look out the back and take pictures of the country side (to report to his superiors so that they might know what bridges and train-tracts to bomb, and so forth.

As the pilot turned sharp circles in his one-engine paper plane, my husband became very air sick as the plane dipped and dived and then rose sharply up again.

It wasn't long before my husband got airsick, at which point the pilot said "you're not going to throw up in MY plane, and decided to land in a farmers field below them--which he did.

When they landed, the farmers came running over with their pitch-forks, and dh stood his ground with his German pestle at the ready--which he had traded with another solder for his army-provided carton of cigarettes. As my d.h. had learned a little German, he told them what had happened, and they all had a good laugh, and then helped d.h. and the pilot turn the plane around so that they could take off--which they did.

As a photograph, he bought himself a wonderful German-made camera--with which he took his own pictures of the bombed out city's, and so forth. He brought these films home with him, and they were not printed until some time after we were married. The prints made were then put into a note book, which we now have to this day (a couple of copies).

Now, as to "OK". Those were the essentials of the man who inspected the planes and the engines. So, his initials became famous throughout much of the world, when everything he inspected had his initials on it--to show that all had been inspected by OK.

Just thought you'd be interested :)
Polly

One of my uncles piloted a forward observation piper cub in the European theater. I remember him saying that one of these piper cubs was shot down by American artillery, such was their penchant for trying to get close to the action.

Kilroy was here...

I love phrase origins and stories like these.
Thanks.

It appears in writing in 1840

https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/explore/what-is-the-origin-of-the-word-ok/

"A more likely explanation is that the term originated as an abbreviation of orl korrekt , a jokey misspelling of 'all correct' which was current in the US in the 1830s. The oldest written references result from its use as a slogan by the Democratic party during the American Presidential election of 1840. Their candidate, President Martin Van Buren, was nicknamed 'Old Kinderhook' (after his birthplace in New York State), and his supporters formed the 'OK Club'. This undoubtedly helped to popularize the term (though it did not get President Van Buren re-elected)."

The Orl Korrect version is likely a myth. Okay is actually similar to a lot of old interjections in various languages. No one's managed to narrow it down to a single one, but it's worth mentioning.

True, but it certainly predates WWII.

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> True, but it certainly predates WWII.

Agreed. It's like those stories that some word is an abbreviation for something. 9/10, it's a myth e.g. Fornication Under Consent of the King, when the F word has clear cognates in German.

I'm not sure I buy the rest of the story - see below.

I'm sorry Polly, but this story stretches credibility. Why would they help an enemy airman take off again instead of taking him prisoner? They could have ended up being executed or imprisoned by the Gestapo. Then there's the issue of why they would help someone attack their own countrymen.

Credulity likes to get out and about, stretch its legs a little.

Ordinary farmers, and they'd have been very old or very young had nothing really to fear from the Gestapo. Remember, we're probably talking mid-1945.

Or maybe my credulity is all huanga at this point in my life.

I take it as a war story, and one that has probably improved in the telling. A lot of people who were in the war didn't like talking about certain aspects of it. My father told me some stories, but he never discussed seeing his friends die or how he was wounded.

A schoolfriend's grandfather was one of the more amazing war veterans I've met. He was a blonde haired, blue eyed German, from a moneyed background. He had the good sense and fortune to get out of Germany early, because he had recent Jewish ancestry, and knew Hitler was trouble. He lost everything he had. He ended up fighting for the Allies, and was used for operations behind enemy lines. We never knew the full story, but we suspect he was used to impersonate high ranking/aristocratic German officers.

okay OPie ~

Way before WW II -- 1700s - 1840s

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_proposed_etymologies_of_OK



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/02/2019 12:12AM by anybody.

Thank you for sharing these possible origins of such a widely-used expression!

“Ok” is fascinating simply due to the number of languages that routinely use it.