After Van Buren's defeat to William Henry Harrison, O.K. Democratic Club and used the gesture as its sign, with the slogan of "O.K." bearing the double meaning in the club's catchphrase, "Old Kinderhook is all correct." Both phrase and gesture made their way into newspapers around the country via political cartoons, thus further spreading the expression. In New York City, fans of Van Buren formed the O.K. A native of Kinderhook, New York, Van Buren was widely known by his nickname, "Old Kinderhook", whose initials, "O.K.", were steadily gaining traction as an expression of approval. The following year Democrats began using the phrase and its accompanying gesture in support of president Martin Van Buren's campaign for reelection. Several other broadsheets in Boston, New York and Philadelphia ran with the expression in their own columns, some with misspellings of "all correct" such as oll korrect, bringing the phrase into the vernacular of American English. While it is not known exactly how the OK gesture and the corresponding verbal expression coalesced, the English professor Allen Walker Read dates the expression's rise in usage to an 1839 humor piece in the Boston Morning Post describing the expression "o.k." as meaning "all correct", suggesting comically misspelled initials, at a time when acronyms for misspelled words were in vogue. "OK" Ĭaricature of Uncle Sam making the "OK" gesture in a cartoon for the 1900 Paris Expositionīy the early 19th century in the United States, the gesture was affiliated with the letters " O" (formed by the circle) and " K" (derived from the extended fingers). Įarly records of the sign's usage in the English-speaking world date to British physician-philosopher John Bulwer's 1644 Chirologia, "The naturall language of the hand composed of the speaking motions, and discoursing gestures thereof." Among the many hand gestures detailed by Bulwer, he described one as "The top of the fore-finger moved to joyne with the naile of the Thumbe that's next to it, the other fingers in remitter," and said that it was "opportune for those who relate, distinguish, or approve". Across Italy the gesture remained in use as one for making points in conversation when moved about to express discursive precision, but when held still in an upright position with fingers jutting skyward, it became an emblem of perfection. In Naples the gesture has been long used to symbolize love and matrimony, as was custom in neighboring Greece, but specifically with the palm upturned, while the gesture made with a downturned palm represents a hand holding the scales of justice. Ethologist Desmond Morris posits that the joined thumb-and-forefinger communicates precision in grasping something literally or figuratively, and that the shape formed by their union represents the epitome of perfection-a circle-hence the gesture's transcultural message that things are "exactly right" or "perfect". Ĭontemporaneously, the sign appeared throughout the Buddhist and Hindu diasporas as a symbol of inner perfection. Quintilian's chironomy prescribed variations in context for the gesture's use during specific points of a speech: to open, give warning or praise or accusation, and then to close a declamation. As an expression of assent and approval, the gesture can be traced back to first century Rome where the rhetorician Quintilian is recorded as having used it. When proffered by one person toward another in Ancient Greece, the gesture was of one professing their love for another, and the sentiment was conveyed more in the touching of fingertips than in the ring that they formed.
Ring gestures, formed by forefinger and thumb with remaining digits extended, appear in Greece at least as early as the fifth century BCE, and can be seen on painted vases as an expression of love, with thumb and forefinger mimicking kissing lips. Buddha statue in Thailand depicting the gesture as Vitarka Mudrā
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