Saturday, August 27, 2005

Say no to Okay

The word okay is a overloaded and ambiguous word used for right about anything. The difference can be in the tone at which it is said or written.

It is apparently the single most used word in the world due to its simplicity and adoption in a number of other languages. It originated from the abbreviation O.K. and not the corollary.

The usage can be very tricky,

"He is okay"

What does that mean?
He is good and not exceptional.
He is average and not good.
He is poor but not terrible.
He is terrible but not evil.

Hmm..beats me!

Husband: I have got some urgent work and so am cancelling our dinner plans.
Wife: "Okay"

Yes? Think about it? Maybe? As you wish? No way?

Beats me again!!

Picture this.

President Bush is talking to his Secretary of Defense over the phone,

Bush: Hello
Secretary: Hello Mr.President
Bush: So what have you got?
Secretary: Need permission to deploy and fire.
Bush: Okay (Secretary launches nuke and starts world war III), what did you just say??

"Okay" is neither yes or no. It can mean so many different things
and is still so commonly used. It leads to confusion and chaos.
Its usage should thus be abolished

And thank god 'okay' is not a keyword in modern programming languages.

Lets work towards banning it!Okay?

7 comments:

Brat said...

That was a good one !!! I will try not to use "****" and let you know how it goes in a week's time !!!

****??

KB said...

Not O*** but Good :)

tt_giant said...

LOL!.

Atleast, this is much benign than its more evil brother - "oh ok!".

Oh Ok is the single most irritating statement you can hear in the workplace.

Maverick said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Maverick said...

Ooops.. I have used the "word" subconsciously toward the end of my blog!! Naah, so you all can see how ingrained this disease is within us!

Wish you luck brat! I know its a toughie..

Some of 'em sure are trying their best ;)

Thanks kb, you seem to have gotten the point.

tt_giant, any prefix to evil is evil..yeah I know how frustrating it is when you explain mahabharat to someone..he goes oh ok...

///slash\\\ said...

very funny post!!!!
in my not so humble opinion,
"O.K" just signifies an acknowledgement of information received....
so its basic utility is to mislead and sow the seeds uncertainty in others...

an article
answering the ambiguities of women...

"ok" is mostly used when you are not paying attention to the person talking to you...
more like "yea whatever, now stop talking"

Maverick said...

yeah ur right slash, some ppl are so bored of the conversation that they say the unintelligible 'okay'..its the polite way to say..get off me! :> others dont get the point and say okay outta fear!!

by the way thats a good article on ur site.