G'day Q,

"Derivation of the Oc in Langue d'oc from hoc is possible"

That's the derivation given in my Concise Oxford ... not mere "oc", but also "oil" - the French spelling of "ille". I wasn't really suggesting that the marginal french who put the two terms together - rather pointing out that they already belonged together ... and suggesting the same expression had been variously intepreted by the Scots ... and then the Americans (who were not short of displaced Scots and Irish!).

Your first citation has a strong suggestion of the "folk etymology that tried to explain an existing "OK" as a phoneticisation of a (badly spelt) "all correct" ("orl korrect"). The American obsession with creating domestic origins for expressions and games(and Australians do the same thing ... if with less oficial backing!) is dealt with in (Burnham's ... ?) Dictionary of Misinformation ... a tattered copy of which is somewhere on my dictionary shelves.

Regards,

Bob Bolton