“O.K.”這個(gè)詞是怎么來的？

It’s a shortcut used the world over — and even beyond, having been uttered at least once during a space mission.

全世界都在用這個(gè)簡(jiǎn)寫，甚至出了地球也用過它——在一次太空任務(wù)中被說了不止一次。

On this day in 1839, The Boston Morning Post published “O.K.” for the first known time, using the abbreviation next to the words “all correct.” (It’s not written “okay,” The Times stylebook says.)

1839年的今天，《波士頓晨報(bào)》(The Boston Morning Post)上(就我們所知)首次出現(xiàn)了“O.K.”這個(gè)詞，在“全部正確”(all correct)的旁邊使用了這一簡(jiǎn)寫。(根據(jù)時(shí)報(bào)自己的體例要求，不寫作“okay”。)

There have been many theories about its origin, but the most likely is that O.K. was an abbreviation for the deliberately misspelled “orl korrect” (all correct), and the expression gained prominence in the mid-19th century.

關(guān)于它的來源眾說紛紜，但最有可能的，就是“O.K.”是故意拼錯(cuò)了的“orl korrect”(all correct)的簡(jiǎn)寫，這一表達(dá)在19世紀(jì)中葉迅速流行了起來。

Allen Walker Read, a longtime English professor at Columbia University, debunked some theories in the 1960s, including that the term had come from Andrew Jackson’s poor spelling, a Native American word or an Army biscuit.

長(zhǎng)期在哥倫比亞大學(xué)執(zhí)教的英文教授艾倫·沃克·里德(Allen Walker Read)對(duì)1960年代的幾個(gè)說法做出了批駁，其中包括這一用法來自于安德魯·杰克遜(Andrew Jackson)寫的錯(cuò)別字，以及這是美國(guó)原住民的土話，或是一種軍隊(duì)餅干。

Today, O.K. is “an Americanism adopted by virtually every language, and one of the first words spoken on the moon,” the Times obituary of Mr. Read noted in 2002.

今天，“O.K.”是“基本每種語言都會(huì)使用的美國(guó)腔，并且是第一批在月球上說出來的詞語之一”，時(shí)報(bào)在2002年里德的訃告里指出。

The professor didn’t “appreciate having ‘O.K.’ overshadow the hundreds of other etymologies he divined,” it continued. He also tracked early uses of Dixie, Podunk and the “almighty dollar.”

里德教授并不“欣賞O.K.這個(gè)詞讓其余數(shù)以百計(jì)在他眼里同樣出色的詞源相形見絀這一點(diǎn)”，訃告里說道。他還找到了Dixie(美國(guó)南部)、Podunk(無名小鎮(zhèn))及almighty dollar(萬能的美元)這些用法的源頭。

In the 1920s, Mr. Read hitchhiked through western Iowa hunting down the word blizzard.

在1920年代，里德通過搭車的方式，游遍了艾奧瓦州西部，找尋blizzard(暴風(fēng)雪)這個(gè)詞的起源。

“A man called Lightnin’ Ellis had first used the word for a snowstorm in 1870,” he learned. “Within 10 years, it had spread throughout the Midwest.”

“一位名叫‘閃電埃利斯’(Lightnin’ Ellis)的男子在1870年，第一次用這個(gè)詞來形容暴風(fēng)雪，”他了解到。“10年內(nèi)，這個(gè)詞就傳遍了中西部。”