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I much prefer and almost always write "okay" vs "ok", and I feel like most of my friends do the same. I wonder if it's a generational thing. I and most of my fr

I much prefer and almost always write "okay" vs "ok", and I feel like most of my friends do the same. I wonder if it's a generational thing. I and most of my friends are early-mid 20s.

extr 9y ago
I agree and am in a similar demo. I think I just as often use "kk" but I'm not able to place exactly where I picked this up from or what it's origins are. UrbanDictionary claims it's internet slang for "okay, cool" == "k, kool" == "kk" which seems believable. It actually hadn't struck me until writing this comment that "kk" was internet specific slang, and thinking about it it's something I don't really see from most people.
- lucb1e 9y ago
  Sidenote: kk is what teens here use a lot to swear with cancer (which is spelled with two 'k's instead of 'c's in Dutch). For some reason many people take big offense, but other illnesses are perfectly fine to them. I've heard people take such offense over what was meant to sound affirmative. I always cringe at the potential reactions when seeing kk somewhere.
  - kqr 9y ago
    > For some reason many people take big offense, but other illnesses are perfectly fine to them. Not the case at all! Dutch use a diverse set of illnesses as profanity. It's just that the big C (or should I say K?) happens to be one of the most severe profanities.
  - tokenizerrr 9y ago
    Also dutch, and while kk can mean kanker (cancer) in chats its often used as just 'ok ok'. Though I did have an awkward incident once where someone thought 'kk' meant cancer and they got very upset.
    - pavement 9y ago
      Within a certain age bracket, many American girls who prefer to be perceived as cute and girly, simply type the letters "kk" to exude a sense of affable agreeableness. This is often paired with "oo" to present surprise or acquired understanding. I get the sense that American girls are doing it both to promote a youthful personality, and because a double-tap of the same letter is efficient, reducing effort while typing. It's also used by older women adopting a cutsey voice or tone, especially women raising teenage daughters, sometimes as a mock teeny bopper act. Males almost never ever use this regardless of age, unless engaging in feminine play as parody, and it gets dropped among females cognizant of their perception as adult women retaining possession of responsibilities and authority. Probably, among all non-users, "kk" is dropped in fearful avoidance of the dreaded accidental "kkk" in an unnacceptable context. Among all, a curt use of "k" with a cessation of further conversation is sometimes an expression of annoyance, either because the conversation took a turn they didn't like, or because they're busy or being interrupted somehow. Capital "K" in this sort of context, combined with habitually minimized capitalization and little or no grammatical punctuation as a personality trait, is almost always an expression of sulking, pouting or open anger with consequences pending. Capital "K" after receiving bad news is as if to say "someone will pay for this, maybe you."
      - meowface 9y ago
        >Males almost never ever use this regardless of age, unless engaging in feminine play as parody, and it gets dropped among females cognizant of their perception as adult women retaining possession of responsibilities and authority. I'm a heterosexual male in my mid-20s and many in my gender and age bracket say "kk" and "ooo" online as casual responses to things all the time - including myself. I wasn't aware we were teenaged girls. I don't think either word is inherently feminine, cutesy or immature; just very informal. The thing I'd associate the most with younger American girls is frequent use of ellipses, often (but not always) with 1-2 less or more dots than is required. Like "k.." or "nice....". I think this is to some extent emulating the "high rising terminal" vocal pattern commonly associated with American women: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_rising_terminal#Implications_for_gender https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_rising_terminal#Implicati... And of course emojis/emoticons.
- nwmcsween 9y ago
  kk at least how I understood it was the 'kay' part in okay so kk == kaykay or okay okay.
- yaur 9y ago
  I believe this spilled out of the early days of MMOs... The first people I heard use it were all DAoC players.
ww520 9y ago
I just use k.
Robelius 9y ago
I wonder if that has anything to do with auto correct on phones changing "OK" to "Okay".
- hamandcheese 9y ago
  Hmm... I performed a quick test on iOS and, at least on my phone, autocorrect does not change "OK" to "Okay".
  - Robelius 9y ago
    Well there goes my idea. I think on my older phones like the LG Shine, it would auto correct to "Okay." Realistically I'm just remembering what I want to remember though. Appreciate you checking that. Didn't even cross my mind to do it on my phone right by me.
    - Jaruzel 9y ago
      I use 'kk' a fair bit to indicate acknowledgement, over affirmation. Your phone idea might be on the right track tho - for those of us who are so old that we used SMS before T9 was invented, typing 'kk' would be way quicker than 'ok'. Just a thought.
- OJFord 9y ago
  Presumably it would try to correct to whichever you usually use - though if that's 'OK' it might give up on the correction by the time you got as far as 'y'.
5555624 9y ago
I'd have said the opposite. I'm in my mid 50s and always spell it out; while most people I know in their 20s use "OK."
- OJFord 9y ago
  I don't think it's generational at all - it's just whether you prefer to write something that looks more like a 'real' word.
  - Ajedi32 9y ago
    Yep. Depending on context I might write "okay", "ok", "kk", or just "k". All depends on who I'm writing to and how formal I want to be.

I much prefer and almost always write "okay" vs "ok", and I feel like most of my friends do the same. I wonder if it's a generational thing. I and most of my friends are early-mid 20s.

extr 9y ago

I agree and am in a similar demo. I think I just as often use "kk" but I'm not able to place exactly where I picked this up from or what it's origins are. UrbanDictionary claims it's internet slang for "okay, cool" == "k, kool" == "kk" which seems believable. It actually hadn't struck me until writing this comment that "kk" was internet specific slang, and thinking about it it's something I don't really see from most people.

lucb1e 9y ago
Sidenote: kk is what teens here use a lot to swear with cancer (which is spelled with two 'k's instead of 'c's in Dutch). For some reason many people take big offense, but other illnesses are perfectly fine to them. I've heard people take such offense over what was meant to sound affirmative. I always cringe at the potential reactions when seeing kk somewhere.
- kqr 9y ago
  > For some reason many people take big offense, but other illnesses are perfectly fine to them. Not the case at all! Dutch use a diverse set of illnesses as profanity. It's just that the big C (or should I say K?) happens to be one of the most severe profanities.
- tokenizerrr 9y ago
  Also dutch, and while kk can mean kanker (cancer) in chats its often used as just 'ok ok'. Though I did have an awkward incident once where someone thought 'kk' meant cancer and they got very upset.
  - pavement 9y ago
    Within a certain age bracket, many American girls who prefer to be perceived as cute and girly, simply type the letters "kk" to exude a sense of affable agreeableness. This is often paired with "oo" to present surprise or acquired understanding. I get the sense that American girls are doing it both to promote a youthful personality, and because a double-tap of the same letter is efficient, reducing effort while typing. It's also used by older women adopting a cutsey voice or tone, especially women raising teenage daughters, sometimes as a mock teeny bopper act. Males almost never ever use this regardless of age, unless engaging in feminine play as parody, and it gets dropped among females cognizant of their perception as adult women retaining possession of responsibilities and authority. Probably, among all non-users, "kk" is dropped in fearful avoidance of the dreaded accidental "kkk" in an unnacceptable context. Among all, a curt use of "k" with a cessation of further conversation is sometimes an expression of annoyance, either because the conversation took a turn they didn't like, or because they're busy or being interrupted somehow. Capital "K" in this sort of context, combined with habitually minimized capitalization and little or no grammatical punctuation as a personality trait, is almost always an expression of sulking, pouting or open anger with consequences pending. Capital "K" after receiving bad news is as if to say "someone will pay for this, maybe you."
    - meowface 9y ago
      >Males almost never ever use this regardless of age, unless engaging in feminine play as parody, and it gets dropped among females cognizant of their perception as adult women retaining possession of responsibilities and authority. I'm a heterosexual male in my mid-20s and many in my gender and age bracket say "kk" and "ooo" online as casual responses to things all the time - including myself. I wasn't aware we were teenaged girls. I don't think either word is inherently feminine, cutesy or immature; just very informal. The thing I'd associate the most with younger American girls is frequent use of ellipses, often (but not always) with 1-2 less or more dots than is required. Like "k.." or "nice....". I think this is to some extent emulating the "high rising terminal" vocal pattern commonly associated with American women: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_rising_terminal#Implications_for_gender https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_rising_terminal#Implicati... And of course emojis/emoticons.
nwmcsween 9y ago
kk at least how I understood it was the 'kay' part in okay so kk == kaykay or okay okay.
yaur 9y ago
I believe this spilled out of the early days of MMOs... The first people I heard use it were all DAoC players.

ww520 9y ago

I just use k.

Robelius 9y ago

I wonder if that has anything to do with auto correct on phones changing "OK" to "Okay".

hamandcheese 9y ago
Hmm... I performed a quick test on iOS and, at least on my phone, autocorrect does not change "OK" to "Okay".
- Robelius 9y ago
  Well there goes my idea. I think on my older phones like the LG Shine, it would auto correct to "Okay." Realistically I'm just remembering what I want to remember though. Appreciate you checking that. Didn't even cross my mind to do it on my phone right by me.
  - Jaruzel 9y ago
    I use 'kk' a fair bit to indicate acknowledgement, over affirmation. Your phone idea might be on the right track tho - for those of us who are so old that we used SMS before T9 was invented, typing 'kk' would be way quicker than 'ok'. Just a thought.
OJFord 9y ago
Presumably it would try to correct to whichever you usually use - though if that's 'OK' it might give up on the correction by the time you got as far as 'y'.

5555624 9y ago

I'd have said the opposite. I'm in my mid 50s and always spell it out; while most people I know in their 20s use "OK."

OJFord 9y ago
I don't think it's generational at all - it's just whether you prefer to write something that looks more like a 'real' word.
- Ajedi32 9y ago
  Yep. Depending on context I might write "okay", "ok", "kk", or just "k". All depends on who I'm writing to and how formal I want to be.