0195 - Okay - 2021.06.28 |
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Comment: Are you okay? What does "okay" mean? There is a common misconception that "OK" derives from military jargon, meaning "zero killed", in which case you are "okay" so long as no one around you is dead. This origin is wrong. In fact, there was a trend of humorous misspellings in 1839, and, although few of them achieved immortality, "oll korrect" stuck around. One might consider the phrase ironic, in that neither of its components are spelled correctly. So... are you okay? Certainly, you're not entirely correct. No one is. But etymology is trivia, not definition, so we must consider how the term is actually used today. When people ask "are you okay?", much like "hey, how's it going?", it's not so much a request for a status update as it is a check to see whether or not immediate assistance is required. Is there currently an emergency? And, of course, the korrect response is to smile and nod and say something like "oh, it's going, alright" or "can't complain". Possibly, it might be an invitation to kvetch about a doctor's appointment or a flat tire, a crisis that has already been dealt with where the only assistance you need is a momentary sympathetic ear. Saying something like "I desperately need something I'm not getting", or "my lifestyle is unsustainable", or "there is something fundamentally rotten in the core of the world, and I feel powerless to address it", or even "I would like some money, please" is socially awkward at best, openly threatening at worst. In the past year, I've taken to saying I'm "covid-fine", which means the same thing as "okay". It means I'm not actually fine, because there's a pandemic and the world's on fire, but I am not currently demanding assistance from the person asking. It is, perhaps, as much as can be hoped for. |
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