How’s That Again? Are You Sure?

Meanings, Spellings, Usages, Originations, Etc.

“O. K.” originated in 1839—“That is O. K. in my book,” said Phil as I showed him the rules for Scrabble. What does this mean, and how did it come to be in our common usage? Supposedly, this abbreviation first appeared as an abbreviation for Oll Korrect, printed in a satirical piece about GRAMMAR at the Boston Morning Post in Charles Gordon Greene’s office, as “writerly folks” produced abbreviations, just as people do today for our use with texts or e-mails—exs. are LOL (laugh out loud) and NBD (no big deal) in use now.

An article surfaced the past few years about a young girl, wondering why her Grandma answered a text about the death of a pet dog with words of concern, followed by “LOL.” The girl asked her why she had texted that and was told, “Why, Honey, I just wanted you to know how much I cared, so I texted, ‘LOL’—Lots of Love!”

FREE GRATIS is commonly heard today as people describe something that is publicly displayed and is “Free of Charge.” “That newspaper on that rack is ‘free gratis,’ or “I quit that job because they wanted me to do too many chores ‘free gratis,’ just because I had not left the office.” GRATIS began in “Romance” languages and was common in Latin and then in Middle English during the 1400s.

Common thought says that the use of “free” and “gratis” together for one idea originated as people saw the words on newspapers and advertisements for things that had no charge and were available where there were many Spanishspeaking people who would recognize the “gratis.” English speakers, who did not know Spanish, took the two words close together to be one term and began using “FREE GRATIS” for times that they wanted to really emphasize the “no charge” aspect! Actually, the twoterm use just means, “FREE FREE.”

AIN’T—This supposedly had its beginnings as the contraction “amn’t,” a contraction for “am not” during the 1600s. This usage is still common some places in Ireland and Scotland. The contraction, “ain’t,” began during the early 1700s and was influenced by “isn’t” and “aren’t” for “is not” or “are not.” Some sources say that this use was considered correct during the early 1700s but by the early 19th century it was no longer accepted in formal writings. Supposedly sometime after the writings of Charles Dickens, it was no longer considered “correct” grammatically.

Although considered “NON-STANDARD” and “disapproved of” by correct writing experts today (and for quite some time after its common use in the Elizabethan Era), the use seems to again be flourishing among many groups of people. If you consider “ain’t” as proper, it must still be used correctly to be “is not” or “am not,” such as “I ain’t going to play ball with you.” (am not)….. Incorrect usage is as the following, “I ain’t shot nobody!” That means “I am not shot nobody.” Being correct, though, would also require saying, “I have not shot anybody,” because if you have not shot nobody, you have shot somebody!

Finally neither of these is correct…..Me and Harry are going to the game. Harry and me are going to the game. To be correct, say the following: “Harry and I are going to the game.” Also, make the following into correct plurals. dog—dogs….. James—Jameses…..3— 3s…..woman—women….. brown—browns. Make the following into correct possessives. team—team’s….. lady—lady’s…..ladies-----ladies’….. Jesus—Jesus’s….. it—its. Are any of these words spelled correctly?...... Baptist, niece, smorgasbord, tomato, caterpillar, avocado, Puerto Rico…… Answer: See end of article.

“O. K.” All of this information is “FREE GRATIS” (free), and I “ain’t” (am not) expecting “no” (any) pay! Answer: All are spelled correctly above! And I have proofread this article over and over again until my eyes are “crossed.” If I have made a mistake or some mistakes, please excuse me!