Nathan Bierma, in his "At Random: On Language," wrote an article about the word "good." While "good" can mean a number of things (he cited more than 24 definitions in most dictionaries), he specifically talked about the newer meaning of "I'm all set," or "I'm adequately equipped to proceed." He cited Benjamin Zimmer, a consultant to the OED, as saying that it may derive from draw poker...where the player who doesn't need cards tells the dealer, "I'm good."

Is this accurate, do you think?

Poker has a rich lexicon and it seems as if this demeans it. In 5 card draw and Lowball(5 card draw law, with Kansas City, deuce to seven, and London variations among others), the term is "stand pat", or, you can signal by tapping the table, called to "rap pat".

The etymology of good in this sense coming from poker doesn't make much sense. When you stand pat, you are either letting people know you have a strong hand, or you are going to try to bluff. Either way, one could say, "I don't need any cards", "My cards are good", "they're good", or "I've good cards". "I'm good" seems terribly ungrammatical.

Most likely it arose from the fact that "how are you doing", and "do you want me to top that off", are really asking the same question about coffee.

Here is an expression derived from poker, "Pass the buck". I'm not sure where "let the chips fall where they may" comes from, not poker certainly, perhaps Roulette, where one can place their chips anywhere. "If you play your cards right" can't come from poker either, and probably comes from Bridge, or Whist.

quote:

Originally posted by Kalleh:
Is this accurate, do you think?

Sounds good to me. "I'm good," meaning "everything's ok," has been around for quite a while, though I can't cite any dates to back me up. Whether it started in poker or not I can't say. Look at Online Etymology Dictionary and dictionary.com.

Tinman

It's very similar to how 'I'm fine, thank you' has become synonymous with 'no thank you' when being offered more food or drink. I said it to a Danish guy once who asked if I wanted another drink, and he said 'I know you're fine, but do you want another drink?' I thought he was playing me up until I realised how surreal it must sound to a non-native speaker.