Where does the term "o.k. "come from?
147934
Simply comes from the military. It means 0 kills, meaning there have been no losses. Then it simply translated into "everything is alright".
1037117
The origin of the word f**k is lost in the sands of time, I'm afraid, but most of the apocryphal stories about it (that it's an acronym for "fornication under consent of the King", or "for unlawful carnal knowledge" for instance) don't even seem to have a shred of truth.\n\nIn all likelihood, the word is descended from the German word "ficken", which means "to strike, or club".  When the Saxons invaded England and their language merged with the natives and became entwined in middle English, the word became "fucken" (no, I'm not kidding).\n\nSo, considering what a good, hard f**k is actually like (sorry to be crude, but think about any time you've seen a guy going hog wild in the sack and you'll get the point), you can see where people would pick up using the word as slang for the act, especially considering what an erect penis looks like... and from there it became the ever so infamous "f-word".\n\n=)
305232
Hardly, it's slang. And if you need to really need to know, I won't go into details here. Look it up in the following link.
731443
The origin of the ubiquitous psuedo-word "OK" or "okay" has proven to be one of the biggest war grounds in etymology. It is not specifically of English origin, being used all over the world in many different languages. The letters "OK" would be understood by an Englishman or Frenchman alike.\n\nSo what are some of the stories surrounding OK?\n\nThe Greeks had an incantation of "Omega, Khi" with which they drove away fleas. \nThe Finnish language has the word "oikea." \nLiberian English has the term "oke." \nBurmese has "hoakeh." \nThe infamous jokers at the Boston Morning Post claimed, in 1839, OK was short for "ORL KORREKT." \nThe Times, in 1939, claimed it had London Cockney origins, from "Orl Korrec." \nAmerican Indians used the word "okeh" which meant "it is so." The story goes that Andrew Jackson picked up the word during the Battle of New Orleans in 1815. \nSome Latin scholars claim that "Omnis Korecta" is the origin. \nA site called The Straight Dope claims it is convinced of the true etymology. It claims the Bostonian "OLL KORRECT" is the true origin of "OK." Another site, however, claims the American Indian etymology is correct.\n\nThis is one of the finest examples of the entertainment of language. Despite technology, historical documents, and the availability of some of the most learned people in history, we still can't work out the etymology of a simple two syllable utterance! Long may it continue.
729925
Hmm, what's this strange word o'clock?  The OED has this to say about its usage and origin:\n\n    (The hour of the day is expressed by a cardinal numeral, followed by a phrase which was originally  a. of the clock, now only retained in formal phraseology; shortened subsequently to  †b. of clock,  †c. a clock (see A prep.2),  d. o'clock, the current modern form; rarer obs. variants were †e. at the clock, and clock simply.)\n\nOf the clock strikes me as pretty similar to on the clock.  Does Deford disapprove of the use of o'clock in (2)?  Given that (1) means unambiguously the same thing, o'clock is redundant in that context in a way that on the clock isn't in the sports context, but people still say it all the time.  Would he try to stamp out this pernicious usage if he ruled the world instead of merely sports?  Fortunately, we'll never find out, because he's not the boss of us.
393250
phew.... here ya go:\n\n"The Dictionary of Contemporary Slang" by Tony Thorne (1990, originally published by Bloomsbury Publishing). "cakehole, n. British. Mouth. A slang term which was extremely widespread (and considered by many to be vulgar) in the 1950s and 1960s. It survives in the argot of schoolchildren."\n\nIn other words, it came from the British.
56303
Are you sure it wasn't "OCD"? (Obsessive-\nCompulsive Disorder)\n\nI work in mental health and I've never seen the abbreviation "OMD"
580707
It could either be a misspelling of OOPS or I saw OPPs as an abbreviation earlier tonight meaning OTHER PEOPLES PROPERTY!  Not sure what it meant in your experiences.
141560
Nobody actually knows where that phrase comes from.  There is an urban legend about where it came from that can be found here: http://www.snopes.com/language/stories/brass.htm
868294
I think it was coined by Martin Lawrence, the same man who gave us "You go, Girl!"\n\nCave\n\np.s.---Just found this:\n\n"In the case of "don't go there," the earliest citation for the phrase in print in the Oxford English Dictionary comes from an interview with comedian Martin Lawrence in Entertainment Weekly back in February 1994. At the time the star of the highly-rated Fox sitcom "Martin," Lawrence took the opportunity to complain, oddly enough, that his material was being stolen by other Fox shows: \n\n"Something ain't right," Lawrence says, removing his sunglasses. ... "We started using the expressions 'You go, girl!' and 'Don't go there!' and no one in television was doing that. No one. Now a lot of Fox shows are using the same stuff and the same premises."
204303
British racial term originating in the colonial period of the British Empire. It was generally used as a label for the natives of India, North Africa and the Middle East. By the 1950s it had become a pejorative term used in order to offend.\n\nThe origins of the term are unclear. Most dictionaries say "wog" either possibly or likely derives from the generic term golliwog after the Golliwogg, a "grotesque" blackface minstrel doll-character from a children's book published in 1895. Various facetious explanations include the claim that it originated from acronyms for "Westernized/Worthy/Wily Oriental Gentleman" or variants thereof, or for "Workers of Government" or "Wards of Government", used to refer to early immigrants into the United Kingdom. Such attempts to explain the word's origin are apocryphal at best.
881022
Comes from "take the cake"\n\nCake: When someone takes the cake they are regarded as having come first in some, often trivial, activity or other. Most authorities consider that this saying goes back to the days of slavery in the USA. The slaves used to hold competitions to see which couple could produce the most elegant walk. The best promenaders won a prize, almost always a cake. The extravagant walk required for this type of competition came to be called a Cakewalk and this gave rise to the old fashioned expression "it's a cakewalk". However the meaning later came to emphasise the trivial nature of the competition and began to imply that the effort needed was minor and of little account. In consequence the modern saying "it's a piece of cake" could well be based on these old customs. \nThere is a much older possible origin, going back to the ancient Greeks. A "cake" in those times was a toasted cereal bound together with honey. It was given to the most vigilant man on night watch. Aristotle is quoted as having written in "The Knights": "if you surpass him in impudence, then we take the cake".
969140
It is not a very good word, and there is no direct translation. It is something like f**k or s**t, and usually used when you drop something or do something wrong.
555893
It's slang from the UK & Ireland, a made up phrase to avoid cursing when surprised or annoyed.\n\nIt's also a slang term for a sexual position.
220132
Kike or Kyke is an ethnic slur used chiefly in the United States to refer to a Jew. The term is regarded as universally offensive hate speech when used by non-Jews, although it is on rare occasion used as a friendly insult among some younger English-speaking Jews.\n\nThe most accepted therroy of the history of the word is that it began as a form of Jewish differentiation before being used as a slur. Believed to have been derived from a Yiddish term for "circle" (kikel), a mark often written by Jews not able to write in English letters on documents. This was the same as the practice of writing a "X" mark by Western culture, but the "X' was seen by many Jews as a Christian cross, so a circle or "O" was used in it's stead. \n\nAnother common belief is that the term is derived from the Latin word caeca ("blind"), coming from Pope Clement VIII's declamation of the "blind obstinacy" of the Jews.\n\nI hope this helps.
446304
I found this on line,\n\n"Devious Derivations: Popular Misconceptions -- and More than 1,000 True Origins of Common Words and Phrases" by Hugh Rawson (toExcel, Iuniverse.com, 1994, 2000). This reference has some new information on the origins listed here (new information in parenthesis), new origins and what could be the actual origin. \n\n: : 1. Orrin Kendall biscuits, which soldiers ate during the Civil War. \n: : 2. Short for Aux Cayes, a Haitian port that American sailors praised for its rum. \n: : 3. Old Keokuk, a Native American tribal chief who was said to have signed treaties with his initials. \n: : 4. OK stands for "all correct" or the illiterate phrase "Orl Korrect." \n: : 5. U.S. President Martin Van Buren's nickname "Old Kinderhook" -- OK for short. He was a native of Kinderhook, N.Y.\n: : 6. Choctaw word "okeh," (or "hoke") meaning "indeed" (or "It is so.")\n: : 7. Scottish "auch aye", meaning "ah yes." (Or "och aye," meaning "okay.")\n: : 8. From the French maritime phrase "au quai" meaning "at dock", and therefore at last safe from the ravages of the open sea.\n: : 9. '0 killed' - the report of the night's death toll during the First World War. \n: : 10. All clear after the shoot-out at O.K. Corral. \n: : 11. Instruments calibrated at an Observatory at Kew had, affixed to them, a stamp, or impression, to authenticate that calibration. This stamp was O K - Observatory Kew. \n\n: : New origins from Mr. Rawson's book:\n: : 12. The abbreviation is for Oberst Kommandant, German for "Colonel in Command," used by either -- take your pick -- a General Schliessen or Baron von Steuben when initialing letters and orders during the American Revolution.\n: : 13. It comes from the name of a freight agent, Obadiah Kelly, whose initials were widely disseminated on bills of lading.\n: : 14. The abbreviation is for Open Key, popularized by telegraphers in the 1860s.\n: : 15. It comes from the names of Lords Onslow and Kilbracken, who initialed bills after they were read and approved in England's House of Lords. \n: : 16. From a misreading of "Order Recorded" on official documents.\n: : 17. Or from Finnish "oikea," correct.\n: : 18. From the Greek "olla," all, plus "Kalla," good.\n\n: : Professor Allen Walker Read of Columbia University, "finally unveiled its (O.K.'s) origins in a series of magisterial articles in 'American Speech' in 1963 and 1964.What Professor Read discovered was that the abbreviation arose in a humorous manner at a time when Americans were indulging in a great deal of wordplay, including abbreviations, acronyms, puns and intentional mispronunciations and misspellings. The earliest example of O.K. that he unearthed (and it is so far still the oldest known specimen) is from the Boston 'Morning Post' of March 23, 1839. It appears in connection with a note by the paper's editor, Charles Gordon Greene, about a visit to New York of some members of the local Anti-Bell-Ringing Society. (The A.B.R.S., as it was usually known, was itself something of a joke, having been formed the previous year to oppose -- its name to the contrary -- an ordinance of the Boston Common Council against ringing dinner bells.) In an aside, Mr. Greene suggested that if the Bostonians were to return home via Providence, they might be greeted by one of his rivals, the editor of that city's 'Journal,' who 'would have the 'contribution box,' et ceteras, o.k. -- all correct -- and cause the corks to fly, like sparks, upward.'.Thus, it appears that O.K. was invented, possibly by Greene, as an abbreviation of the jocular 'Oll' or perhaps 'Orl korrect,' meaning "All right.' This explanation would seem farfetched, except for Read's finding that it dovetai
4817
It's unclear why the word "love" is used.  It may come from  l'oeuf in French which means "the egg", a reference to the egg-shaped zero symbol; however, since "un oeuf" is more commonly used, the etymology remains in question.