Does the saying O.K. or Okay come from the German words Alles Klar (All Clear) when spoken in Germany it means the same as O.K.?

zbeckabee

1839, only survivor of a slang fad in Boston and New York c.1838-9 for abbreviations of common phrases with deliberate, jocular misspellings (cf. K.G. for "no go," as if spelled "know go"); in this case, "oll korrect." Further popularized by use as an election slogan by the O.K. Club, New York boosters of Democratic president Martin Van Buren's 1840 re-election bid, in allusion to his nickname Old Kinderhook, from his birth in the N.Y. village of Kinderhook. Van Buren lost, the word stuck, in part because it filled a need for a quick way to write an approval on a document, bill, etc. The noun is first attested 1841; the verb 1888. Spelled out as okeh, 1919, by Woodrow Wilson, on assumption that it represented Choctaw okeh "it is so" (a theory which lacks historical documentation); this was ousted quickly by okay after the appearance of that form in 1929. Okey-doke is student slang first attested 1932. http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=OK&searchmode=none Jun 29 07, 9:24 AM

Baloo55th

Okeh did survive as an American record label. The German AK would not sound as 'oh kay' but as 'a ka' (ka as in kat not as in Ka - the twiddly little Ford thing). Jun 29 07, 2:11 PM