Term ‘ok’ or ‘okay’ in English language means alright, yes, good. Term ‘ok’ has penetrated languages across the world. Watch a foreign language film or listen to foreign speech, European, Asian, African, and one will eventually hear ‘ok.’ Here’s example in Vietnamese language, “ừm. đàng tìm origin của từ Ok .hihi.”

Merriam-Webster online dictionary reports first use of ‘ok’ in year 1839. Where did ‘ok’ come from, what’s its derivation? Did it come from Welsh phrase, “oll korrect?” Was it abbreviation for Greek phrase, “ola kala” (all good)?

It is here proposed that ‘ok’ may go back to Greek noun ‘oikeiosis,’ extension of the root-word ‘oikos,’ family, household or home. ‘Oikeiosis’ is technical term in ancient Stoic philosophy, meaning ‘process of forming or determining relations.’ Relations would include first, constitution of self, i.e., body and mind, next, parents, siblings and so on. ‘Oikeiosis’ is exercise of perception and reason to figure out what is ‘oikeion,’ that is, whatever is ‘of home’ or familiar. Every animal or person naturally seeks to find/know what is his or hers, one’s own hands, one’s own sister, one’s own food, one’s tribe, city and how things close and distant have affinity to an individual. In Stoic thought, oikeiosis is a process based on instinct, what is needed for survival and subsistence.

Stoic school of philosophy started in fourth-century B.C. Athens with Zeno, Cleanthes and Chrysippus and continued into Roman times with Cicero, Seneca and Marcus Aurelius. So the concept of oikeiosis goes back some 2300 years in Western thought.

It is admitted that this is a fanciful theory of origin of English ‘ok,’ based on preservation of Greek letters, omikron and kappa in their English equivalents and semantic similarity to oikeiosis, oikeion. When a Stoic rationally grasps something, he has intellectually measured its relation to his own (self). When an American or an Arab says ‘ok,’ it is outcome of same line of reasoning. For example, an Arab might say the Quran is ok because Quran provides him with knowledge of God, while the Bible is ok for Jews, but less so for himself. There are degrees of ‘ok-ness,’ just as there are degrees of oikeion.

[In order to confirm this theory, much philological study would have to be done. Transmission of Stoic doctrine would need to be traced through centuries of writers to see if there were permutations or abbreviations of Greek oikeiosis that led into modern language.]

The End

Some books:

Tad Brennan, The Stoic Life (Oxford: Clarendon, 2007)

Brad Inwood, ed., The Cambridge Companion to The Stoics (Cambridge Univ. Press, 2003)