Has the Word Okay Become a Truly Universal Expression?

Most people if asked about the word “okay” or its shortened versions of “OK” and “O.K.” would probably think that its origin is the U.S. This may be at least partially correct, because it is certainly not a word or term that was in use in England before the second world war and it use in the English speaking world seems to have arisen from after contact with U.S. forces during that period in the nineteenth century and the arrival of U.S. T.V. shows and films.

But is “okay” actually an American expression originally and how much is it recognised around the world today? There are actually a number of competing possibilities for the origin of the word and probably no-one is absolutely sure. One story, probably the one that is most widely recognised, at least in North America that the word “okeh” is actually an Amerindian word (north American Indian) meaning in English “That’s right” or “Yes it is so”. Other possible origins are a Mande word from West Africa, “o-ke” which means more or less the same as we understand it to mean in English. Other West African languages, such as Wolof and Mantu have similar sounding words to “okay” like “waw-kay”.

Whatever the origin, the word certainly seems to have taken residence in many other parts of the world and has been adopted as part of the foreign language additions to many other languages. No-one that is involved with translation services worldwide has to worry about the translation of this particular idiomatic expression!

In English, “okay” has several different meanings and can be used as a stand-alone expression or a part of speech. For instance, it can be used as an adjective in such an expression as “It’s an okay day today”. It can be used as a single answer to a question like “How are you?” “O.K., Thanks!” or just “O.K.”

Its adoption elsewhere in the world hasn’t changed the basic meaning of the word and wherever you go, even in countries where English is rarely spoken, you can bet that some version of “O.K.” is understood. It may have become an accepted part of that language’s vocabulary and even when two people are speaking together in Hindi, Chinese, Spanish or Yoruba you can most likely hear the ubiquitous and useful little word spoken!