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From: guy@rlgvax.UUCP (Guy Harris)
Newsgroups: net.jokes.d,net.nlang
Subject: Re: Origin of Words
Message-ID: <159@rlgvax.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 1-Oct-84 01:46:02 EDT
Article-I.D.: rlgvax.159
Posted: Mon Oct  1 01:46:02 1984
Date-Received: Tue, 2-Oct-84 07:36:38 EDT
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Organization: CCI Office Systems Group, Reston, VA
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> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> > > 	In medieval Normandy, Monks concerned with loading boats
> > > 	at the docks would reassure their superiors when all of the
> > > 	materials were on the dock and ready to load, that is:
> > > 	"Au Quais".  This expression (which sounds about the same as
> > > 	"okay") entered English via french-Creole speakers in
> > > 	New Orleans.
> >
> > According to my high school German teacher, the word OK comes from
> > the name of an inspector in a VW plant, Otto K???, who wrote his
> > initials on each car that passed inspection.  Of course, I don't have
> > any definitive references either.
> 
> I'm suprised that nobody's just gone to the dictionary for this.  ...

The first "explanation" (about the monks) was (as stated in the original
article) a deliberately constructed false origin of "OK", done as an
example of the sort of factoids given as word origins during a discussion
of the origin of the word "f*ck".  It's interesting how much discussion a
red herring which never claimed to be anything but has kicked off...

	Guy Harris
	{seismo,ihnp4,allegra}!rlgvax!guy