copacetic

[snousle]

Apropos of nothing:

Origin: 1915–20, Americanism; of obscure orig; popular attributions of the word to LaF, It, Heb, etc., lack supporting evidence

I used that word recently, and a 60-year old woman told me that this was a word her father used quite often. My first thought was, where did this word come from? It sounds like something someone just made up!

Isn't it interesting how these late-born and recently-deceased words pop into your head? This was probably the hang-five or daddy-o of its day.

Comments

[winstonthriller.livejournal.com]

My father uses it. He's in his 80s. He also tells me I have "Moxie". Having tasted it, I'm not sure it is a compliment.

[dhpbear.livejournal.com]

Ah Moxie™, the 2nd worst soft drink in the world!

[furr-a-bruin.livejournal.com]

...the absolute worst being Diet Moxie? :)

Dr. Pepper's gotta be way up on that list... top 10 for sure.

[bbearseviltwin.livejournal.com]

hey now, Furr. I am a Dr. Pepper fanatic! It's great stuff.

[snousle.livejournal.com]

I would have thought #1 was Pocari Sweat!

[furr-a-bruin.livejournal.com]

One of the worst names, perhaps... of course, if it were called "Bear Sweat" I'd find the idea a lot more appealing. ;)

[dhpbear.livejournal.com]

Nope, it's Diet Moxie!

[theotherqpc.livejournal.com]

also popularized amongst The Youth by Local H's 1996 single "Bound for the Floor"

[putzmeisterbear.livejournal.com]

I grew up using it and still do. But then I'm an old fart.

[dhpbear.livejournal.com]

..but a woofy old fart :)

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

I learned that it was a borrowing from Louisiana French, but I can't find the citation now.

[bluebear2.livejournal.com]

I remember hearing it. I assumed that it was some French-English combo saying like "sil vous please".

[dhpbear.livejournal.com]

I'd never seen it in print before. I always assumed that its root was 'aesthetic'. I first heard it from a 50's-ish guy I was dating back in the early 80's.

...

[dorisduke.livejournal.com]

I remember folks using that word often in the late sixties, thinking of course they were cool.

According to most sources, the word was popularized by Bill "Bojangles" Robinson way back in 1919. He claimed to have coined the word when he was a shoeshine boy back in Richmond, Virginia. However according to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word was first used in that same year by Irving Bacheller in his book Man for the Ages, a biography of Abraham Lincoln. That's where any agreement on the word starts to break down.

Various origins for copacetic have been suggested, none of which, according to pretty much every report I read, has any supporting evidence:

John O'Hara used the word in his book Appointment in Samarra. He states that it had its source in an Italian word which he believed to be something like "copacetti." That's about as close as he came.
One traces it back to a Creole French word coupersetique meaning "that which can be coped with. "
Another source traces it to one of two Hebrew phrases, hakol b'seder, "all is in order," or kol b'tzedek, "all with justice."
Another tells of a source in the Chinook word copasenee, which means "everything is satisfactory."
One most likely fabulous explanation says that it is a corruption of the phrase "the cop is on the settee," meaning that local law enforcement was none too vigilant and things were thus OK.
One source suggests a combination of two of these possibilities. Southern black children could have heard the Hebrew word from Jewish shopkeepers and interpreted it as "copacetic" thereby introducing it into Southern black slang.