Copacetic (pronounced koh-puh-set-ik)
In
slang, fine; completely satisfactory; OK.
1919:
An Americanism said to be of utterly obscure origin, the entirely speculative attributions
of the word to Cajun (Louisiana) French, Italian, Hebrew, African American
English, Yiddish, barracks Latin or even gangster slang all lack any supporting
evidence.
Given
that the English language offers: pleasant, satisfactory, acceptable,
enjoyable, attractive, tempting, appetizing, cordial, OK, nice, fine, likable,
sweet, cheerful, convivial, satisfying, amusing, agreeable, pleasing,
pleasurable & amiable, copacetic filled no obvious gap although it was said
by some (without evidence) to be specific to a mood, or relationship without
problems. The richness of the English
vocabulary meant there were already plenty of ways of saying that and women have
anyway long been skilled in loading the word “fine” with just a change of
inflection, covering the spectrum from the first, fine careless rapture of love
to homicidal loathing. Copacetic
wouldn’t seem to improve on that but some tried to get it to catch on, the
alternative spellings including copasetic, copesetic & copesettic. Copacetic is an adjective.
Obscure and unnecessary, copacetic exists mostly as a fetish word discussed between consenting etymologists and lexicographers in the privacy of their chat groups. It does occasionally appear in literature or other places, either because the author is searching for linguistic variation or just as the type of flourish Henry Fowler (1858–1933) condemned in A Dictionary of Modern English Usage (1926) as a “pride of knowledge”, something he thought “a very unamiable characteristic”, the display of which “sedulously should be avoided”. In other words, except between word-nerds, copacetic need not be used (because there are so many alternatives) and should not be used (because most won’t know what it means). Knowingly or not, most seem to have followed his advice. Henry Fowler, although disapproving of much, may have been more tolerant of another wilful display of the obscure: Oojah-cum-spiff. Oojah-cum-spiff (all right; fine) appeared in PG Wodehouse's (1881-1975) novel Very Good, Jeeves (1930), possibly as an alteration of oojah-capivvy, Wodehouse's interpretation of an Indian or Persian expression of uncertain origin. Wodehouse remains something of a nerdish cult but oojah-capivvy is now as rare as copacetic.
As far
as is known, copacetic appeared first in the novel A Man for the Ages (1919) by Irving Bacheller (1859-1950). The author had a character, noted for her idiosyncratic
speech, twice use the word and added it and “coralapus” were “her peculiar property” and “prized possession”. Coralapus vanished without trace but copacetic
has never quite gone away, the novelty attracting journalists, headline writers
and songsmiths but the place it was first embedded was elaborated
African-American speech, especially among those associated with jazz music and
by the 1930s, it was regularly included in dictionaries of US slang and
etymological discussions in literary journals.
At this time, the speculation seems to have begun, one of the earliest
claims of origin by a gentlemen from Milwaukee who claimed it was from the Cajun
(Louisiana) French couper-sètique (able to cope with), the correspondent even providing
a couplet from “a charming old Acadian poem.”
Lindsay Lohan and her lawyer in court, during an "RU OK?" moment, Los Angeles, 2012.
However,
this theory gained no support. Also
dismissed were other suggestions of origin including the Chinook Jargon copasenee (which seems actually to exist
in Chinook Jargon), the Israeli Hebrew hakol
beseder (all is in order (in a transliteration from the pointed spelling
ha-kōl bĕ-sēdher)), a calque on expressions in European languages such as the German
alles in Ordnung, the Polish wszystko w porządku and the Russian vsë v porjadke. All were debunked by one authority or another
and the consensus is that Irving Bacheller simply coined the word for his
character in the manner of the malapropisms Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751-1816)
created as comic devices for his Mrs Malaprop in the play The Rivals (1775). What
supports this perhaps disappointing conclusion is that Mr Bacheller had a bit
of previous in such coinings, the construct of copacetic presumably a blend of
the Latin copia (plenty) + ceterum (otherwise, in other respects).
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