Date:    Tue, 5 May 1998 02:35:32 EDT
<br>From:    Bapopik <Bapopik[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]AOL.COM>
<br>Subject: O. K.  (1780?); O. P. H.
<br>
<br>O. K. (1780?)
<br>
<br>     This is probably ridiculous, but I think it was missed in Allen Walker
<br>Read's "O. K." series in AMERICAN SPEECH.
<br>      It's from the New-York Commercial Advertiser (an important newspaper), 6
<br>December 1841, pg. 2, col. 2:
<br>
<br>
<br>_O. K._
<br>
<br>      We have at length struck upon the origin of these mystical
<br>letters--stolen last year by the wicked Whigs, as their watchwords, from the
<br>sagamores of Tammany Hall.  It will be seen from the heading of the following
<br>order that these letters formed the countersign of the guards on the 6th of
<br>September, 1780.
<br>                                        "HEAD Quarters, 6th Sept. 1780.
<br>"_Parole_, RICHMOND.  Counter-signs,{O.
<br>                                                         {K.
<br>                Watch-word--FABIUS.
<br>"For the Day, Brigadier Patterson,
<br>                 "Col. H. Jackson,
<br>                 "Col. Badlaw,
<br>                 "Brigade Major Nicholas Fish."
<br>
<br>------------------------------------------------------------------------------
<br>-------------------------------------------
<br>O. P. H.
<br>
<br>       In "The First Stage in the History of 'O. K.,'" AMERICAN SPEECH,
<br>February 1963, pg. 16, "o. p. h." is explained as "but a spelling out of
<br>_off_."  This is repeated in the RHHDAS entry.  However, is there another
<br>explanation?
<br>      One citation is, "Faugh! chips and porridge were a feast to them.
<br>Landlord, you'd better get _died_.  Come, bucks, let's o-p-h."
<br>       This is from the _Pittsfield Sun_, 21 January 1841, pg. 3, col. 3:
<br>
<br>     After to-day, (new year's) so far as the girls are concerned, K. K. will
<br>mean _kant kourt_.
<br>     K. K. (_kold konsolation_) as the toper said when he gulphed down a glass
<br>of cold water, for a "suck" of P. W. G. (_phirst wrate gin_)
<br>     Here's the last.  It was got off at a party the other night.  O. P. H.
<br>(_oll phired hungry_)--_Spirit of the Age_.
<br>