Oar: If someone puts an oar in during a discussion or argument then they are interfering. The words are part of a longer phrase which is never used these days; it should be "to put an oar in someone else's boat". The expression is recorded in 1542 in an elaborate, but never-the-less recognisable form in a translation of a work by Erasmus. "Whatsoever came in his foolish brain/ Out it should were it never so vain/ In eche man's bote would he have an oar/ But no word of good purpose, lesse or more."
Offing: In the offing is a means of saying that something is imminent. It is a nautical term used to indicate that a ship out at sea is actually visible from the shore i.e. off shore, in the Offing, not far from port and due to arrive in the near future.
Ointment: A fly in the ointment is something that gets in the way; an encumbrance; a hindrance to the outcome. There are many possible ways of describing this type of difficulty but why fly and why ointment? The answer almost certainly lies in the Bible. The book of Ecclesiastes (10.i) includes "Dead flies cause the ointment of the apothecary to send forth a stinking savour...."
OK: If something is OK then it is acceptable. There have been numerous suggestions as to the origin of this one. Some believe it came from the abbreviation of Orrin Kendall biscuits, which American soldiers ate during the civil war. Others say OK is short for Aux Cayes, a Haitian port that American sailors praised for its rum. Another legend suggests the word comes from Old Keokuk, a Native American tribal chief who was said to have signed treaties with his initials. Others say that it stands for 'All Correct.', but then why not 'AC'? Yet others suggest the French "au quai" meaning "at dock", and therefore at last safe from the ravages of the open sea.
What is known is that OK first appeared in print in the spring of 1839 in the Boston Morning Post. By that stage it must have been a well established phrase and was further popularised in the election campaign of 1840 when Martin Van Buren, a native of Kinderhook, NY, popularly referred to as "Old Kinderhook" - OK for short - stood for re-election. 'OK' was widely used and abused by both sides.
There are words like OK in many other languages. In the West African language of Wolof, "waw kay" means "yes." In Choctaw, "okeh" means "indeed", or "may it be so". Of course, there's also the Scottish "Auch Aye"!
The truth is that no one knows the origin. The US civil war biscuits are ruled out because they came into being 25 years or so after the phrase. It probably comes from several sources.
Incidentally, the earliest example of the use of the letters 'OK' can be seen at the Science Museum in South Kensington (London) where they can be found as an impression on early scientific instruments to indicate that they were calibrated at the Royal Observatory at Kew.
Posted on the SHU Phrase message board on 14 Nov 2005 was the following, seemingly giving documentary proof to the All Correct/Old Kinderhook origin:
"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 re-election. 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 referred to it.
On 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."
Onions: To know your onions means to know what you're talking about; to be an expert in a particular field. I can't find a derivation, but it's not hard to imagine that this comes from the hobby of vegetable growing where a particularly successful gardener, who produces outstanding produce, including onions, would have this said about him.
However, in June 2003, Michael Quinion offered the following on his World Wide Words web site
"The crucial fact is that the expression isn't British but American, first recorded in the magazine Harper's Bazaar in March 1922. It was one of a set of such phrases, all with the sense of knowing one's stuff, or being highly knowledgeable in a particular field, that circulated in the 1920s. Others were "to know one's oats", "to know one's oil", "to know one's apples", "to know one's eggs", and even "to know one's sweet potatoes" (which appeared in a cartoon by T A Dorgan in 1928). You may notice certain similarities between the substances mentioned, most being foods and most having names that start with a vowel."
Ox: My giddy ox is an expression of mild surprise at a situation that seems stupid or outlandish, The saying is now somewhat outdated but it is based on the saying "to play the giddy ox" which, in its day, meant to behave in an irresponsible or over hilarious manner. This saying in turn came from a time when an ox was regarded as an even more stupid animal than now. Such use is seen in Shakespeare's Merry Wives of Windsor (V,v)
