OK vs Okay

[HareBrain]

Check out its proposed etymology.

Amazing. I'm going with the "och aye" theory.

In fact, find/replace ...

 

[Jo Zebedee]

This is pretty close to what happened to me. But it was mostly because they said they couldn't see a man from 100 A.D. use OK instead of Okay. Even then they wanted to see him use something else.

I'd have been with them, I'm afraid. It's very modern sounding for so long ago.

 

[Wo7f]

Nobody from that long ago even spoke English.

But I had to write it in English. Else no one would be able to read it.
I think I might have changed it...Hmmm, let me take a look. Yep, I changed it.

I think it used to be. "Are you ok?" to "What ails you?"

 

[HareBrain]

Logically, it should be fine. As Goldhawk says, any form of English is too modern for 100 AD, so 'OK' could easily be a translation for whatever slang was used back then. But it's all about perception, and over the years a certain style of English (the origin of which I have no idea) has been deemed 'in-period' for pretty much anything set before 1500 or so.

If I remember right, Alan Garner, in Red Shift, has his Roman legionaries speak like modern squaddies, and once you get over the surprise, it works much better then the usual 'ancient-speak'.

 

[Wo7f]

Actually, I do have them speaking in...spartacusian...(how they talked on Spartacus series) but not so much that you can't understand it.

 

[ratsy]

I use okay. I think that OK sounds too informal. To me that is like using 18 instead of eighteen. It is a shortened version that isn't the actual word. That being said, past me probably used OK just to spite present me.

 

[Venusian Broon]

I use okay. I think that OK sounds too informal. To me that is like using 18 instead of eighteen. It is a shortened version that isn't the actual word. That being said, past me probably used OK just to spite present me.

As fishbowl says, O.K. or OK was first and therefore for the pedant possibly more correct. Okay is a variant that came along later.

Although both are now in the dictionary - so what the hell - use house rules or whatever you fancy.

Okay looks like the phonetic spelling of OK to me.

I believe there was a craze in 19th century US newspapers that had all sorts of weird abbreviations that now defy all attempts to decode what they actually stood for originally (hence the huge number of theories for OK in the wikipedia link)

 

[ratsy]

Fair enough. That makes sense Venusian.

 

[jastius]

Kay is how you spell the letter k. I was told it was a short form for the Latin phrase 'omnis korrectas'

Meaning 'all correct'. However it is also a Greek short form for 'all is fine/well'. And it was adopted as a telegraph signal to indicate an open line, where we get the meaning, "I am listening to you". It was used as a call sign and hand signal for pilots and ground agents in ww1 to indicate " you are good to go," meaning the chucks were off the plane...which is where we get its meaning time to start. Also it was a military signal used as far back as the american civil war, indicating after a battle zero kills or fatalities. Where we get the meaning, I'm surviving, or I am still here. Used as a shipment symbol, it means this is acceptable or passes customs or this will do.
From the scotch Irish entomology of och aye, is the more enthusiastic oh, yes! Roughly, "with pleasure".
And of course there are variations of this in root form in most of your European languages, because of their familial origins.
As well as certain native american languages.
As such it is a discovered universal word.
But back to the question of the correctness of OK, I was told in formal writing you write it out, most especially if it is used as an affirmative.
But for Latin for your characters? In your story's time wouldn't it be rather SVV? Si Vales Valeo? If you are well I am well?
Or the more protracted, hi! Heus! Greetings good morning or evening or welcome! Salve! How are you? Quid ageis? I am fine! Valeo! And you? Et tu? Good/so so... Bene /admodem bene.

 

[psychotick]

Hi,

I use okay because my spell checker had a fit every time I used OK. The only other one it would accept was O.K. and that was simply too much hassle to type.

Cheers, Greg.