This came from the 90s from kids on AOL. I was one of those kids… it then moved on to video games… it mean ‘okay kewl’. I’ve never seen any ever type k kewl, but kk!
I have a different perspective on “k” as a response. I don’t think it’s inherently negative. It depends on the previous comment. In your example, ouch! Yes, that’s not good. But if I’m texting with my son and type “be right there,” he might respond “k.” It just means OK. Also, to add further confusion, some elementary school kids I know say “okee.” Maybe that’s up and coming?
I don't have strong evidence for this, but my understanding was that kk arose from World of Warcraft raids. There might be earlier attestations, but it's definitely through all the WoW players I knew that I saw it gain popularity. The reason, I think, is that in a raid you have to be hitting specific key combinations very quickly in succession, so when responding to others you need an affirmation that is as fast and false-positive proof as possible. k on its own has a reasonable chance of being a typo. ok is more certain, but hitting two separate keys slows you down more than one. So kk is the obvious synthesis
Oooohhhhhhh, oooookkkkkkk. I went back and looked at your earlier post about the anti bell ringers or whatever they were. Is that really where it comes from?
How is 'k' so high in that graph from earliest times, when it is surely such a modern innovation? I guess the graph line is incorporating all single uses of the letter 'k' in the searched material (potassium, Kelvin, thousand, etc?), not just those signifying the meaning 'okay'?
This came from the 90s from kids on AOL. I was one of those kids… it then moved on to video games… it mean ‘okay kewl’. I’ve never seen any ever type k kewl, but kk!
My husband uses okey in text which he thinks is friendlier than okay. His friendliness drives me crazy on and off text.
I have a different perspective on “k” as a response. I don’t think it’s inherently negative. It depends on the previous comment. In your example, ouch! Yes, that’s not good. But if I’m texting with my son and type “be right there,” he might respond “k.” It just means OK. Also, to add further confusion, some elementary school kids I know say “okee.” Maybe that’s up and coming?
What about “mk” - the dubious, judgy cousin?
I don't have strong evidence for this, but my understanding was that kk arose from World of Warcraft raids. There might be earlier attestations, but it's definitely through all the WoW players I knew that I saw it gain popularity. The reason, I think, is that in a raid you have to be hitting specific key combinations very quickly in succession, so when responding to others you need an affirmation that is as fast and false-positive proof as possible. k on its own has a reasonable chance of being a typo. ok is more certain, but hitting two separate keys slows you down more than one. So kk is the obvious synthesis
That's really interesting! I hadn't come across the WoW connection, but will definitely follow up on it!
When a fanfic uses "K" as part of speech and not just a text message, I have a conniption
Oooohhhhhhh, oooookkkkkkk. I went back and looked at your earlier post about the anti bell ringers or whatever they were. Is that really where it comes from?
As far as I can tell, that's a pretty definitive origin story now! There was an awful lot of confusion and competing etymologies up until Allen Read "solved" the case in the '60s: https://www.nytimes.com/2002/10/18/nyregion/allen-read-96-the-ok-expert-is-dead.html
How is 'k' so high in that graph from earliest times, when it is surely such a modern innovation? I guess the graph line is incorporating all single uses of the letter 'k' in the searched material (potassium, Kelvin, thousand, etc?), not just those signifying the meaning 'okay'?
This is not OK, ok, or Okay! I need you to weigh in on the etymology! From whence doth this little pair of letters derive its enormous power?