【文稿】英语词汇小百科：OK

XH: Hello and welcome to Round Table’s Word of the Week. This week, let’s talk about “OK,” okay? John: Okay. “Okay” is an amazingly mysterious word and it’s also an amazingly flexible word. It can be used as an adjective. It can be used as an adverb, an interjection, a verb, a noun, and a discourse marker. For example, it can be used to show doubt or even be used to seek confirmation. XH: 真的是一个用处非常多的词，它可以用作形容词、副词、感叹词、动词、名词，还可以用作征询意见的语气词。 John: As an adjective and as an adverb, it usually means adequate, acceptable, or perhaps even mediocre, in contrast to good. As an interjection, it denotes compliance or agreement, like just saying “yes.” As a verb and a noun, it shows assent or, again, agreement. XH: 我感觉好像又来到了中学英语英语课堂一样。Let’s talk about it. OK作为副词的时候就是还好 ，还可以，甚至是还凑凑合合的意思，作为感叹词是表示同意。 John: It’s interesting because as a verb and a noun, I don’t think many of our listeners will have heard it used this way so here’s a few examples. For example, “The boss okayed the purchase.” That’s using it as a verb. And, “The boss gave his okay to the purchase.” That’s using “okay” as a noun. XH: OK作为动词使用的不是太多，但也有用到的时候，比如说“老板同意了这笔采购”，我们可以说 “The boss okayed the purchase.” John: Looking at the history, as I mentioned before, it’s a word shrouded in mystery. There actually really is, among etymologists, the people who the history of language or the development of language, there isn’t actually any agreement on where the word “okay” comes from. Some people have speculated that it came into use in Boston in 1838 during an abbreviation fad and “OK” meant “all correct” and correct was spelled with a “k.” It’s also been hypothesized that it comes from a Choctaw origin which, when we look at Bibles from the Choctaw after they converted to Christianity, at the end of many sentences there was the word “okeh,” meaning in Choctaw, “it is so. XH: OK. 关于OK的起源，我们知道的实在不多，因为即使语言学家也无法达成统一的意见。有人说OK是all correct的缩写，还有人说OK起源于北美原住民的语言。 John: To be honest, there are so many different other interesting theories. Maybe, it comes from the Scottish “och aye.” Maybe it comes from another North American, Native American Indian tribe, the Lakota, from "Hokaheh.” It could be a loan word from a Greek pharse, Ola Kala, meaning “all good.” It also could be a loan from the Burmese word “hou' ke,” meaning yes.As we can see, as I said before, “Ok” we just have no idea where it actually comes from, except now we know how to use it, I guess. XH: 还有其它的起源传说，有说是起源于苏格兰的，有说是起源于另外一支北美部落的，有说起源于一个希腊外来词，还有人把它追溯到了缅甸语。So I guess, although we use the word so much in daily life, we really just have to agree that we don’t know where it comes from. John: We have no idea what “ok” actually is, where it comes from, but all we know is how to use it and we use it all the time. XH: And we use it in different languages. Okay! John: OK! XH: That’s all we have for Round Table’s Word of the Week.