Where does ode come from?

The ancient Greeks can be thanked for the original ode, poems that exalted individuals, actions, or nature. Famous ode writers over the centuries include the Greek Pindar, the Roman Horace, and, in the English language, John Keats. The word ode, from a Greek word meaning “song” or “chant,” is recorded in English in the 1500s.

The word ode is often found in the construction ode to X, with X being the object of the poem or other artistic work’s praise.

The slang ode (or odee) emerged as a substitute for “really” or “very” by 2009. It appears to be a phonetic spelling of the acronym for overdose, OD, whose original sense was extended to the idea of doing something to an extreme extent, hence “really” or “very.”