Carol Smith, age l5, of Staten Island, N.Y, for her question:

What does o.k. stand for?

We may write it as o.k or as okey or as okay. In any case, the expression Ieads a double life. When written on a document it is accepted as a perfectly iegal notation. It means "all right" or "i agree," and a person who puts it with his initial on an agreement can be held to his word. But language experts do not accept o.k. in and; form as standard English. It is rated as slang.

The experts are not sure how the expression was born. Some say it may have arisen from the old kinderhook club that supported martin van buren for president in l840. Others think that President Andrew Jackson coined it from orl kerrect, a misspelling of all correct.