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  The word“OK”is the most frequently spoken all-purpose expression on the planet-and it celebrated its 176th anniversary on March 23，2015．The term was born during a 19th-century I abbreviation(缩写)craze and went on to international fame with its own hand gesture．

  Last year，Henry Nass，a 64-year-old retired English teacher，a New Yorker had spent the last few weeks handing out cards championin9“Global OK Day” in advance of the coming anniversary．

 “No matter where people are from，they use the word ‘OK’，but they don't know where it comes from，”said Nass．“The problem is because it's just，you know，OK．”

  The word is OK，perhaps，but its history is definitely better than average．Late professor Allen Walker Read traced the two-letter word to 1839，when editors at the Boston Morning Post signed off on articles as “all correct” with a simple word “OK”．

  The word made it into print on March 23 of that year，during an article against a rival(对手) editor in Providence who had stated wrongly that a band of Bostonians headed to New York would pass  through the Rhode Island capital．

“We said not a word about our team passing ‘through the city’ of Providence．”the Morning Post reposed．“O．K．—all correct．”

The humor of the Providence-Boston joke has been lost to history—but the word OK took off from there，soon connoting(隐含)agreement，acceptance，averageness，quality or likability．

  By 1840，it served as a slogan for President Martin Van Buren's unsuccessful reelection campaign．“old Kinderhook is 0K，”posters stated，a reference to the eighth president's birthplace and his supporters’ belief in his satisfactory performance．