• OK Day (23 March)

    From Ross Clark@21:1/5 to All on Sat Mar 23 22:47:34 2024
    That should be "'OK' Day", of course. An "OK Day" would be a so-so,
    not-bad day. This one is about the word.

    23 March 1839, Boston Morning Post -- first known appearance of the word
    (in the form "o.k."), standing for "all correct".

    Allen Walker Read, etymologist and lexicographer, clarified its origins
    in a fashion for whimsical eye-dialect abbreviations among American wits
    of the early 19th century, and put to rest several other theories of its
    origin that had been proposed.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allen_Walker_Read https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OK

    Who thought it needed a "Day"all to itself?
    Allan Metcalf, who wrote a book about it (2011).

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  • From Aidan Kehoe@21:1/5 to All on Sun Mar 24 08:41:19 2024
    Ar an tríú lá is fiche de mí Márta, scríobh Ross Clark:

    That should be "'OK' Day", of course. An "OK Day" would be a so-so, not-bad day. This one is about the word.

    23 March 1839, Boston Morning Post -- first known appearance of the word (in the form "o.k."), standing for "all correct".

    As impressive as soccer in its worldwide reach; I wonder was that the earlies US cultural export with as wide a reach?

    --
    ‘As I sat looking up at the Guinness ad, I could never figure out /
    How your man stayed up on the surfboard after fourteen pints of stout’
    (C. Moore)

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  • From Christian Weisgerber@21:1/5 to Aidan Kehoe on Sun Mar 24 18:47:08 2024
    On 2024-03-24, Aidan Kehoe <kehoea@parhasard.net> wrote:

    23 March 1839, Boston Morning Post -- first known appearance of the word (in
    the form "o.k."), standing for "all correct".

    As impressive as soccer in its worldwide reach; I wonder was that the earlies US cultural export with as wide a reach?

    FWIW, both "okay" and "Coca-Cola" entered the Duden (German spelling dictionary) in 1954.

    I'd like to nominate the mythic Wild West as the earliest American
    cultural export that went global, although its spread beyond North
    America and Europe may postdate WWII again, I don't know.

    --
    Christian "naddy" Weisgerber naddy@mips.inka.de

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  • From Aidan Kehoe@21:1/5 to All on Tue Mar 26 09:45:16 2024
    Ar an ceathrú lá is fiche de mí Márta, scríobh Christian Weisgerber:

    [...] I'd like to nominate the mythic Wild West as the earliest American cultural export that went global, although its spread beyond North America and Europe may postdate WWII again, I don't know.

    Jack London was massively popular in Russia in his lifetime, though I can’t see
    any comment about contemporary popularity in the Spanish and Portuguese-speaking New World in the corresponding Wikipedias. As I understand it, Karl May wasn’t hugely read outside of Europe, though he was huge within Europe.

    --
    ‘As I sat looking up at the Guinness ad, I could never figure out /
    How your man stayed up on the surfboard after fourteen pints of stout’
    (C. Moore)

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Athel Cornish-Bowden@21:1/5 to Aidan Kehoe on Tue Mar 26 16:41:55 2024
    On 2024-03-26 09:45:16 +0000, Aidan Kehoe said:

    Ar an ceathrú lá is fiche de mí Márta, scríobh Christian Weisgerber:

    [...] I'd like to nominate the mythic Wild West as the earliest American cultural export that went global, although its spread beyond North America and Europe may postdate WWII again, I don't know.

    Jack London was massively popular in Russia in his lifetime,

    and well after his death. When went to Russia on a school trip in 1961
    he seemed to bethe only modern writer in English that most Russians had
    heard of.

    though I can’t see
    any comment about contemporary popularity in the Spanish and Portuguese-speaking New World in the corresponding Wikipedias. As I understand
    it, Karl May wasn’t hugely read outside of Europe, though he was huge within
    Europe.


    --
    Athel -- French and British, living in Marseilles for 37 years; mainly
    in England until 1987.

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