An official etymology was announced about 10 years ago. One of the various stories was that Andrew Jackson initialed state papers with "OK" for 'Oll Korrekt'. It was a lie. He was quite literate. However... In New York state there was a little town called Knickerbocker where folks from New York city went to escape the summer heat. Even there, the dog days were so bad that people just sat on the porch and drank iced lemonade. The local paper, The Knickerbocker Times, knew this, of course, so during the hottest part of the summer they published many games, puzzels, and humourous essays. They are the ones who started the Andrew Jackson canard. That was the very first print appearance of "OK" in any country.