[Verbivore]


B y  R I C H A R D  L E D E R E R






in the 1830s in New England, there was a craze for initialisms, in the manner of the currently popular T.G.I.F. and P.D.Q.  The fad went so far as to generate letter combinations of intentional misspellings: K.G. for "know go" and O.W. for "oll wright."  O.K. for "oll korrect" naturally followed.

Of all the loopy initialisms and misspellings of the time, O.K. alone survived.  That's because of a presidential nickname that consolidated the letters in the national memory.  Martin Van Buren, elected our eighth president in 1836, was born in Kinderhook, N.Y., and, early in his political career, was dubbed "Old Kinderhook."  Echoing the "Oll Korrect" initialism, O.K. became the rallying cry of the Old Kinderhook Club, a political organization supporting Van Buren during the 1840 campaign.  The coinage did Van Buren no good, and he was defeated in his bid for re-election.   But the word honoring his name today remains what H. L. Mencken identified as "the most shining and successful Americanism ever invented."  

Match the presidential nicknames in the left-hand column with the presidents in the second column:







	
	
1. The Great Emancipator
	

	
	a. James Buchanan
	




	
	
2. Old Hickory
	

	
	b. Calvin Coolidge
	




	
	
3. The Father of His Country
	

	
	c. Dwight David Eisenhower
	




	
	
4. The Sage of Monticello
	

	
	d. Ulysses S. Grant
	




	
	
5. Ike
	

	
	e. William Henry Harrison
	




	
	
6. Tricky Dick
	

	
	f. Andrew Jackson
	




	
	
7. Silent Cal
	

	
	g. Thomas Jefferson
	




	
	
8. Tippecanoe
	

	
	h. Abraham Lincoln
	




	
	
9. Unconditional Surrender
	

	
	i. Richard M. Nixon
	




	
	
10. Old Rough and Ready
	

	
	j. Ronald Reagan
	




	
	
11. The Gipper
	

	
	k. Franklin D. Roosevelt
	




	
	
12. The New Dealer
	

	
	l. Teddy Roosevelt
	




	
	
13. The Schoolmaster
	

	
	m. William Howard Taft
	




	
	
14. The Rough Rider
	

	
	n. Zachary Taylor
	




	
	
15. Big Bill
	

	
	o. Harry S. Truman
	




	
	
16. The Bachelor President
	

	
	p. George Washington
	




	
	
17. The Haberdasher
	

	
	q. Woodrow Wilson
	






See answers at the bottom of the page.


Try the Verbivore's Challenge.  The first reader who answers the following questions correctly will win a $25 gift certificate to Borders Books and Music.








1. By the time they became president, two chief executives had deleted their first names.  List the original full name of each of these men.





2. What president simply reversed the order of his first and middle names?




3. In what president's first name appears the last name, with the letters in order, of a later president?





Please enter your full name


Are your answers all filled in? Then press the SUBMIT button below. This quickly sends your answers back to Salon. There is no need to press this button twice. 










The winner of the last Verbivore Challenge, "Bilingual Puns" was Mike Gauland, who correctly guessed the following answers: 


1-vacuum, continuum, 2-sovereignty, 3-colloquial, 4-corps


The winner of the previous Verbivore Challenge, "Cutting Your Bon Motlars" was Karen Fegley, who correctly guessed the following answers: 


1-supersede, 2-dreamt, 3-scion, 4-stanchion, 5-fuchsia 






Language expert Richard Lederer's latest book is "Pun and Games," wordplay for kids. He comments on language for National Public Radio and other radio stations and is the Grammar Grappler for Writer's Digest. He can be reached at  rlederer@tiac.net.
 Visit the newly-erected Verbivore web site at 
http://www.tiac.net/users/rlederer/index.htm





Answers to presidential nicknames:
	

1-h, 2-f, 3-p, 4-g, 5-c, 6-i, 7-b, 8-e, 9-d, 10-n, 11-j, 12-k, 13-q, 14-1, 15-m, 16-a, 17-o 










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