ID:187087
 
What do ie, PS and OK actually stand for? I know what they mean but not what they stand for. I think my nursery school teacher told me ok means all correct.
Internet Explorer, Playstation, Oklahoma

~Kujila
Is it really that hard to quickly look this stuff up first? Then again, I'm sure this thread would degenerate into a flame war quickly when someone injects the "forbidden" three letters. :p
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=ok
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=ps
In response to Kujila
...

I think you know I didn't mean those versions of ie PS and OK.

In case you didn't, I mean:

ie: When you say something and then say ie to simplify what you just said or give an example.

PS: The little note you put at the bottom of letters.

OK: Okay?
In response to DeathAwaitsU
DeathAwaitsU wrote:
...

I think you know I didn't mean those versions of ie PS and OK.

In case you didn't, I mean:

ie: When you say something and then say ie to simplify what you just said or give an example.

PS: The little note you put at the bottom of letters.

OK: Okay?


ie= In Example
PS= Post Script (or after text, a loose translation)
OK= Okay.
From Dictionary.com

ie = id est ('that is' in Latin).

PS = Post script.

The history of OK = OK is a quintessentially American term that has spread from English to many other languages. Its origin was the subject of scholarly debate for many years until Allen Walker Read showed that OK is based on a joke of sorts. OK is first recorded in 1839 but was probably in circulation before that date. During the 1830s there was a humoristic fashion in Boston newspapers to reduce a phrase to initials and supply an explanation in parentheses. Sometimes the abbreviations were misspelled to add to the humor. OK was used in March 1839 as an abbreviation for all correct, the joke being that neither the O nor the K was correct. Originally spelled with periods, this term outlived most similar abbreviations owing to its use in President Martin Van Buren's 1840 campaign for reelection. Because he was born in Kinderhook, New York, Van Buren was nicknamed Old Kinderhook, and the abbreviation proved eminently suitable for political slogans. That same year, an editorial referring to the receipt of a pin with the slogan O.K. had this comment: “frightful letters... significant of the birth-place of Martin Van Buren, old Kinderhook, as also the rallying word of the Democracy of the late election, ‘all correct’.... Those who wear them should bear in mind that it will require their most strenuous exertions... to make all things O.K.”
In response to DarkView
And for more arguing about the origins of the word "okay" and its abbreviation than you can poke a linguistic stick at, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Okay.
In response to Scoobert
Darkview:
ie = id est ('that is' in Latin).

I think that sounds more likely.