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 ho w spell, so what he really wrote was “ ol korekt ”. After a while, he shortened that ter m to “OK”. The second explanation is based on the place where President Van Buren was bo rn, Kinderhook, New York. Van Buren’s friends organized a club to help him bec ome President. They called the club the Old Kinderhook Club, and anyone who supported Van Buren was called “OK”.