There are stories about two U.S. presidents, Andrew Jackson and Martin Van Buren, which attempt to explain the American English term OK. We don’t know if either story is true, but they are both interesting. The first explanation is based on the fact that President Jackson had very little education. In fact, he had difficulty reading and writing. When important papers came to Jackson, he tried to read them and then had his assistants explain what they said. If he approved of a paper, he would write “all correct” on it. The problem was that he didn’t know how spell, so what he really wrote was “ol korekt”. After a while, he shortened that term to “OK”. The second explanation is based on the place where President Van Buren was born, Kinderhook, New York. Van Buren’s friends organized a club to help him become President. They called the club the Old Kinderhook Club, and anyone who supported Van Buren was called “OK”.