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课外阅读篇：OK的起源

http://www.sina.com.cn 2004/03/06 17:23 英语辅导报

　　OK is the most successful of all Americanisms.It has invaded hundreds of other languages and been adopted by them as a word.Mencken claims that US troops stationed overseas during WWII found it already in use by Bedouins in the Sahara to the Japanese in the Pacific.It was also the fourth word spoken on the surface of the moon：

　　OK一词是美国用语中最成功的一个。它已渗透到几百种其他语言中，并作为一个通用词被其他语言所采用。曼肯指出，二战期间驻军海外的美国军队发现，OK一词当时已被撒哈拉大沙漠地区的贝督因人用来与太平洋上的日本人交谈。OK一词也是在月球表面讲出的第四个口语词：

　　Buzz Aldrin:Contact light.

　　Neil Armstrong:Shut-down.

　　Aldrin:OK.Engine stop.ACA out of Detent.

　　Armstrong:Out of Detent.Auto.

　　Aldrin:Mode Control,both Auto.Descent Engine Command Override,Off.Engine Arm,Off.413 is in.

　　Charlie Duke(Houston CapCom):We copy you down,Eagle.

　　Armstrong:Engine arm is off...Houston, Tranquility Base here.The Eagle has landed.

　　Duke:Roger,Tranquility.We copy you on the ground.You got a bunch of guys about to turn blue.We're breathing again.Thanks a lot.

　　布兹·阿尔德林：连接灯光。

　　尼尔·阿姆斯特朗：关闭。

　　阿尔德林：OK.引擎停止。ACA制动脱离。

　　阿姆斯特朗：制动脱离，自动的。

　　阿尔德林：方式控制，双双自动。登陆引擎命令飞跃，脱开！引擎臂，脱落。413进入。

　　查理·杜克(休斯敦Cap通信)：我们把你拍摄下来，鹰。

　　阿姆斯特朗：引擎臂已脱落……休斯敦，这里是平静地面。鹰已登陆。

　　杜克：罗杰，平静。我们在地面将你们拍摄下来。你们这帮小伙子快变成蓝色的了。我们又喘过气来了。谢谢！

　　Despite the term's success,however,for years no one was really sure where the word came from.The origin of OK became the Holy Grail of etymology.Finally,in1963theGalahad of our story,Dr.Allen Walker Read of Columbia University appeared and uncovered the origin.

　　尽管OK一词用得很成功，但多年来，没人确切地知道这个词是从哪儿来的。OK的出典成了词源学梦寐以求的圣杯。最终，到了1963年，我们这个故事的主人翁，哥伦比亚大学的阿伦·沃克尔·利德博士出现了，他揭示了OK一词的来源。

　　First,some of the more popular suggestions as to the origin are as follows.These can all be dismissed because of lack of evidence or because OK predates the events that supposedly led to creation.

　　首先，关于OK的起源有下列几种比较流行的说法。由于缺乏证据或由于OK一词产生于那些可能产生该词的事情以前，这些流行的说法都可能被否定。

　　It stands for"Oll korrect",a misspelling of"All correct",usually by a famous person,most often Andrew Jackson.This one comes close to the mark，but still misses it.

　　OK代表"Oll korrect","All correct"(完全正确)的拼写错误。这一拼写错误是由一位名人造成的，可能是安德鲁·杰克逊吧！这一说法与OK一词基本相符，但还是不够准确。

　　It stands for Old Kinderhook,the nick-name of Martin Van Buren who came from Kinderhook,New York.Old Kinderhook played a role in popularizing the term,but it is not its origin.(More on this later.)It comes from any one of a number of languages,most often the Choctaw word ok eh.This explanation often involves Andrew Jackson again,but this time the word was adopted from the Indian language not because it was orthographi-cally-changed.A later president,Woodrow Wilson,favored this explanation,but he was wrong.As far as this explanation goes,it was not suggested until 1885but no evidence exists that this,or any foreign word,is in fact the origin.

　　OK代表Old Kinderhook,这是一位来自纽约金德虎克的名叫马丁·凡·布伦的人的绰号。老金德虎克在普及这一词语中起了很大作用，但这还不是OK的起源(以后祥述)。OK来自多种语言中任何一种，最经常的是巧克陶词okeh。这一说法常常又涉及到安德鲁·杰克逊，但这一词来自印第安语，并不是因为拼写上的改变。后来一位叫伍德鲁·威尔逊的总统赞同这一说法，但是他错了。这一说法一直流行至1885年，但没有证据可以证明OK一词起源于任何一种外国语言。

　　It is an abbreviation for Oberst Kommandant,or Colonel-in-Command,used by Von Steuben or Schliessen during the Revolutionary War.No record of either man,or anyone until 1839，using this phrase exists.

　　OK是Oberst Kommandant或Colonel-in-Command(指挥上校)的缩写，是革命战争时期封·斯图本或史利森所使用的。但是直到1839年，尚没有发现关于上述两人或任何其他人用过OK一词的文字记载。

　　It comes from the French Aux Cayes,a port in Haiti famed for its rum.

　　OK来源于法语Aux Cayes，海地的一个港口名，以朗姆酒而闻名。

　　It stood for Orrin Kendall crackers supplied to the Union Army during the Civil War.OK was in use twenty years before the Civil War.

　　OK代表Orrin Kendall,一种美国国内战争期间供给联邦军队的饼干的品牌名。OK一词于国内战争20年前就开始使用了。

　　OK was also an 1860s telegraph term for Open Key.

　　OK还是19世纪60年代电报用语Open Key(开键)的缩写。

　　Of the above explanations,the first comes the closest to being true,but it too is false.Andrew Jackson was a not odiously poor speller.So much so that his spelling became an issue in the 1828campaign.(Dan Quayle can take heart in the fact tha the was not the first.)He is not,however,known to have ever used the expression OK or misspelled"all correct"with the two letters in question.The association of the word OKwith Jackson,however,is not entirely without foundation.George W.Stimpson's Nuggets Of Knowledge,published in 1934cites a 1790court record from Sumner County,Tennessee in which Jackson"proved a bill of sale from HughMc Gary to Gasper Mansker,for a Negroman，which was O.K.This was probably just poor penmanship on the part of a court clerk,however.James Parton's biography of Jackson suggests that is really an illegible O.R.,which was the abbreviation used for Order Recorded.

　　上述各种说法中，第一种最接近真实，但同样也不正确。安德鲁·杰克逊单词拼写的糟糕是出了名的。糟糕到如此地步，以致在1828年战役中成了一大问题。(丹·奎尔完全可以振作起来说他不是第一个。)然而，他不是因为用了OK这一表达方式或者拼错了"all correct"中的两个字母而出名的。将OK与杰克逊联系起来也不是完全没有根据的。乔治·W·史蒂姆森在1934年出版的《知识金砖》一书中曾引用了田纳西州萨纳县1790年的一份法庭记录，在此记录中杰克逊曾为一位黑人批过一份销售单，由休·麦克加利转给佳斯珀·曼斯克尔，批示同意就用的OK。然而，这也可能是因为法院职员糟糕的书法所致。詹姆斯·巴顿所著的杰克逊传记一书中指出，实际上那是字迹潦草的O.R.，是Order Recorded(定单已记录)的缩写。

　　The incorrect spelling explanation is the correct one.Although the part about Andrew Jackson is almost certainly apocryphal.Allen Walker Read of Columbia University solved the mystery in a series of articles in American Speech in 1963-1964.In 1839，a"frolicsome group",as Read describes them,called the Anti-Bell-Ringing Society in Boston started using the term to stand for"Oll korrect",a facetious misspelling.

　　关于拼写错误的说法是正确的。虽然其中关于安德鲁·杰克逊的部分是不足凭信的。哥伦比亚大学的阿伦·沃克尔·利德从1963到1964年在他一系列的《美国口语》论文中揭示了OK一词的奥秘。正如利德所讲的，1839年，波士顿一个称作"反对铃儿响叮当协会"的嬉戏团体开始启用OK一词来代替"Oll korrect"这一滑稽的错误拼写。

　　The first recorded use of OK was in the spring of 1839by the Boston Morning Post：

　　OK有记录的用法首次出现在1839年春季的波士顿晨报上，现摘录如下：

　　(10April)"It is hardly necessary to say to those who know Mr.Hughes that his establishment will be found to be'A No.One'-that is,O.K.-all correct."

　　(4月10日)"对认识休斯先生的人几乎没有必要说，他所创办的协会是第一流的。那真的是OK，---完全正确，无话可说。"

　　By July of that year,the term spread south to New York,and quickly gained wide acceptance.

　　到那一年的七月，OK一词流传到南方，传到纽约，很快得到公众的接受。

　　(文/新疆喀什文玉荣；英语辅导报高三版03～04学年第19、20期；版权归英语辅导报社所有，独家网络合作伙伴新浪教育，未经许可，不得以任何形式进行转载。)

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