This entry needs anaudio pronunciation. If you are a native speaker with a microphone, pleaserecord this word. The recorded pronunciationwill appear here when it's ready. Particularly: "preferrably someone from Scotland or Ireland"
“Och, ooh, it’s so confusing, it hurts my wee head! I’m just a woman, you know, just a pair of ovaries and some bangs! How do I have the mental capacity to pick from one of two options? Put me down for a no, and never trust me with an important decision again!”
FromOld Swedishock,ok, fromOld Norseok, unstressed variant ofProto-Germanic*auk(“also”). Cognate with Norwegian, Danish and Icelandicog, Dutchook, Germanauch, and Englisheke. The unusual spelling with the digraphch may have been to avoid confusion with the now datedock(“too, also”).
Variant form ofatt (used to indicate theinfinitive form of a verb; compare Englishto) as both tend to be pronounced asIPA(key): /ɔ/ in unstressed form. Often perceived as an erroneous hypercorrection, and proscribed.
