what is the meaning of O.K. and its origin?
914159
Consult AskOxford.com… and take your pick of meaning and origin!
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.
44737
Did you mean okey-dokey?o·key-doe·key      \nadj. & adv.  okey-dokey is an informal "OK"
531512
You are quite right, the vast majority of acronyms are from the 20th century.  19th century acronyms include WC (water closet) which has spread throughout much of Europe as an acronym for toilet.  Probably the most famous acronym of all time though is OK, which started life as an acronym for "Old Kinderhook", Martin Van Buren, during his presidential campaign.  He was the "correct" candidate to vote for (he won), so the acronym OK came to mean "right".\n\nAs a note, ichthus for Christians, is NOT an acronym.  An acronym is an abbreviated phrase that becomes a NEW word.  Ichthus was a word in Greek independent of Christianity, so it is NOT an acronym.  No one says "ichthus" in Greek and means "Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior", they mean "fish".\n\nAnd, "f**k" is also NOT an acronym.  It has a good Germanic pedigree stretching back at least 2500 years to Proto-Germanic *fukan 'to have intercourse'.
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.
729439
Encyclopedias. The term is not Latin, but actually comes from the Greek εγκύκλιος παιδεία (enkuklios paideia), literally "in a circle of instruction"\n\n--------------------------\n\nHere's a fuller definition of the term for you if you're interested, and also for the benefit of user Old Lady below (since she/he doesn't allow email contact): \n\nThe word comes from the Classical Greek ἐγκύκλιος παιδεία (pron. enkyklos paideia), literally 'the things of boys/child in a circle', meaning "a general knowledge." Though the notion of a compendium of knowledge dates back thousands of years, the term was first used in the title of a book in 1541 by Joachimus Fortius Ringelbergius in the title page of his Lucubrationes vel potius absolutissima kyklopaideia (Basel, 1541). It was first used as a noun by the encyclopedist Pavao Skalic in the title of his book Encyclopaedia seu orbis disciplinarum tam sacrarum quam prophanarum epistemon ("Encyclopaedia, or Knowledge of the World of Disciplines") (Basel, 1559).
813016
It's believed to have been abreviated from Oll Korrect, used in Boston newspapers during the 1800's, as a deliberate misspelling of All Correct.\n\nApparently they liked using abbreviations apparently.
66228
Comes from Scottish.  They invented the game, called it "Goff".  Golf is the Americanized version of that word.  Not an acronym for anything, that's absurd.
482731
The application of the word to human intercourse dates at least as far back as Proto-Germanic times, about 2500 years ago.  The form was *fukan "to have intercourse".  It was not vulgar originally.  Indeed, it started life as a euphemism for another word (perhaps lost in time).  The original meaning in Proto-Indo-European (about 6000 years ago) of *pug- was "to strike" (*pug- is the ancestor word for *fukan).
772924
It's short for economy, which comes from the Greek word "Ekonomia" or Οικονομία, which has it's roots in the word Οίκος = Home. It also reflects wards like savings, thrift and the like.\nNDS
655048
English\n\nEtymology\nGreek (ostrakon) potsherd used for voting\n\nVerb\nto ostracise\n\nto remove (someone) from society or from a community
39721
"Love" is generally taken as being derived from the French "l"oeuf", the egg, symbolising nothing. The term "love" can also be said to come from the English phrase "neither for love nor for money", indicating nothing. (Taken from the book entitled The Guinness Book of Tennis Facts & Feats and Fifteen Love).
29496
If you mean the origin of the "word" it means \n0(zero) Killed. It was used during the war and it was also symbolized with a thumb up.\nI've also heard that it comes from old English and O.K. were the initials for All Correct wich were suposed to be spelled Oll "Korrect" (O.K.). But the first choice is probably the korrect one.
420339
Note that "x" ONLY sounds like "z" at the beginning of words, and only words of a certain origin.  Specifically, they are words are ALL words derived Greek, in which they were spelled with the Greek letter called "xi" --which is pronounced "ksee" .\n\nBut over time the sound of the English word changed, but the spelling did not.  And this sort of change, dropping the first part of a consonants cluster ('ks') that we find difficult to say at the beginning of a word in modern English is not without parallel.   Another example: "knight" dropw the "k" sound while keeping the historical spelling (on the other hand, Germans still pronounce this sound in the word's German relative, "Knecht")
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.
35885
it means f**K It.\n\nNo, actually, it is not Damn it.  Sod is a word for sex (explicit) as in "Sod off, you!"
628875
O.K. - \nabbreviation of "oll korrect", alteration of "all correct" : all right. Mutilple emails (see contrib list) have indicated that the abreviation O.K. was not an english expression, they claim that the term came from the germans during the W W II, because the merchandise that they used in war was revised and stamp with a seal stating OLL KORRECT, so the abreviation for those words were O.K. \n\n\n:)\n\nhey your avatar is similar to mines! :)