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[Article] OK, is Martin Van Buren responsible for the tiny word that punches above its weight? (www.npr.org)

submitted 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) by treadful@lemmy.zip to c/interestingshare@lemmy.zip

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From Buenos Aires to Bangkok, Montreal to Moscow, the languages may differ, but nearly every taxi driver or street vendor in the world understands one word made famous during a raucous U.S. presidential campaign nearly 200 years ago.

It's "OK": a tiny word that punches well above its weight. It means both "yes" and "I understand." It's a noun: I got the OK for this story from my editor; a verb: She OK'd it and an adjective: The story turned out OK.

It's even a simple interjection: OK! Enough with the grammar lesson!

[Article]

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[–] galoisghost@aussie.zone 6 points 2 weeks ago

Nothing ever changes in human nature:

It germinates from a linguistic fad of the time — a playful trend not unlike Cockney rhyming slang in which people "would abbreviate common phrases with deliberate, jocular misspellings,"