Okey-Dokey is a word, a phrase, or a saying that we rarely hear today. I have a friend who uses it constantly. I have heard it from him so frequently that I was motivated to look it up. It is an anachronism that was used and abused in the thirties when I was in elementary school!
In recent years,
I have wondered every time my friend responds with okey-dokey why it
sounds so strange to my ears. I believe that he uses it to end a specific piece
of our conversation. It resonates as a
mindless agreement, a shut-down: “OK
you have said your piece, I have had enough, now let’s talk about something
else!” My friend succeeds, it does shut
down conversation but I am not always satisfied because the implied agreement
does not always ring true. I am
uncomfortable with the phrase; the person using it was not around in the
‘30s. It is his automatic shut down
valve and I have to be wise, simply accept it.
It is almost
like using “thee or thou” in everyday conversation today. Okey-dokey was
a favorite of those of us who graduated in the thirties. Those were tough years coming out of the
Depression, prewar years when Europe was erupting. I was just a kid graduating from the eighth grade, heading to
high school. Okey-dokey was
perhaps like whistling in the dark. If
you said it and felt it, the world might get off its merry-go-round and provide
some sense of security.
Some words
become dated. I recall that I insisted
that my father was “mid-Victorian” whenever he corrected me or reminded
me of the boundaries. That was the
worst insult I could safely think of, I used it over and over again. He simply shrugged it off; sometimes he said
he was sorry, he was pleased because I was not cursing. Today, our young people have a vernacular
that is frequently incomprehensible to me.
I ask occasionally what a word means, always happy when the answer does
not embarrass me.
So, perhaps I
can simply hear my friend’s okey-dokey and not listen for bells to ring
when it is repeated. Okey-Dokey? Finis!
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