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Good Question: Common Word Origins

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Aug 29, 2008 4:38 pm US/Pacific

Good Question: Common Word Origins

Reporting
Pallas Hupé
SACRAMENTO (CBS13) ― A viewer, Autumn, wrote to ask, "where does the term OK comes from?"

Like many words, there are different theories but the most popular one is this: in 1840 democratic supporters of former US President Martin Van Buren named their political club OK after Van Buren's nickname: Old Kinderhook.

So now to a.m. and p.m. Larry from Sacramento wanted to know what they stand for.

"It's straight from the Latin ante meridian and post meridian, and it's odd that it survived because it's a clunky phrase and I think if it weren't an abbreviation it probably wouldn't have survived," said Simpson.

Simpson says you'd be surprised by how much ancient Latin we use in everyday language today.

(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

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