Just overheard this blast from the past for the first time in decades. Even on this venerable forum it hasn't been mentioned since 2004 (& then only in passing). Wiki says there is no evidence to support theories of its origin. Will someone who knows Hebrew advise the pronunciation of the phrase claimed as one of the possibilities?
quote:
first used by British soldiers stationed in Palestine before 1948, based on the Hebrew הכל בסדר (hakól b'séder, “everything is O.K.”)
Sounds plausible except that I seem to remember 'Everything's copacetic, man' as a term borrowed into boomer slang from jazz musicians...
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It's one of the unfortunate words without a known origin. An amateur etymologist abhor nothing like a word of unknown origin. I don not find the Hebrew etymology convincing.
Pronunciation: /kəʊpəˈsɛtɪk/ /-ˈsiːtɪk/ Forms: Also copesetic, etc., kopacetic. Etymology: Origin unknown. U.S. slang.
Fine, excellent, going just right.
1919 I. Bacheller Man for Ages iv. 69 ‘As to looks I'd call him, as ye might say, real copasetic.’ Mrs. Lukins expressed this opinion solemnly... Its last word stood for nothing more than an indefinite depth of meaning.
1926 C. Van Vechten Nigger Heaven 286 Kopasetee, an approbatory epithet somewhat stronger than all right.
1934 J. O'Hara Appointment in Samarra (1935) i. 24 You had to be a good judge of what a man was like, and the English was copacetic.
1935 N. Ersine Underworld & Prison Slang 29 Copissettic, all right, okay.
1937 Amer. Speech 12 243/1 ‘Everything is copesetic’..is synonymous with ‘O.K.’, and I believe it is used by negroes in the South.
1947 Down Beat 18 June 4 (heading) Torme not all copa-setic.
1969 Down Beat 20 Mar. 18/1 We hear two city cops chatting. ‘Well, everything seems copasetic,’ says one. ‘Yeah, we might as well move on,’ the other agrees.
William Safire (March 29, 1980) thought the word was probably from the Hebrew kol b'tzedek "all with justice." He said the word was popularized by Bill (Bojangles) Robinson, the dancer, and is used by black jazz men.
1919, but it may have origins in 19c. Amer.Eng. Southern black speech. Origin unknown, suspects include Latin, Yiddish (cf. Heb. kol b'seder), Italian, Louisiana French (coupe-sétique), and Native American. None is considered convincing by linguists.
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.
One theory traces it to an Italian word "copissettic," supposedly meaning "excellent," another to a Creole-French word, "coupersetique," or "able to be coped with." Both are superficially plausible, but lack any evidence in their favor. The fact that "copacetic" first appeared in African-American usage, especially among jazz musicians, makes another theory, that the word is based on the Hebrew phrase "kol ba seder," meaning "all in order," more of a mystery than a believable explanation. Yet another theory, that "copacetic" came from the French phrase "copain c'est épatant!" ("Buddy, that's great!"), seems as much a stretch as the others.
Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, an African-American entertainer of the early 20th century, claimed to have coined the word (and he did certainly popularize "copacetic"). Although other sources cast doubt on Robinson's claim, the implausibility of all other theories so far proposed makes one wonder if he might have been right.
This message has been edited. Last edited by: tinman,
In the book Talking Retro, the author mentions one reason for writing it was he noticed that kids didn't understand some references older people used. For example, younger people recognize "Watergate" but can't relate why it's important. Another example is the phrase "bigger than a breadbox." That reference was often used on the show Twenty Questions to compare the size of a mystery object. But when was the last time you ever heard of, much less saw, a breadbox? Or a rumble seat?
Steve Allen posed the question, "Is it bigger than a bread box?" on the What's My Line?" TV show on January 18, 1953. He was serious in asking the question, but the audience roared in laughter. It became a standing joke on the show.
From his 1960 autobiography, Mark It and Strike It
Is is bigger than a breadbox?"
The one line that seems to have stuck in the public consciousness is one whose popularity has always been a puzzle to me. One evening, in trying to determine the size of an object that was manufactured by one of the guests, I said, "Is is bigger than a breadbox?" I meant this in all seriousness, but for some reason the audience laughed uproariously. Perhaps the reason is that the breadbox is an old-fashioned item to today's homemakers and so the word had the sort of connotation that surrounds phrases like high-button shoes, celluloid collar, or raccoon coat. In any event, from that day to this the phrase has been a part of the American vernacular. Dorothy, Bennett, and Arlene picked it up as a sort of running joke and there was a time when every week somebody would send me an unusual breadbox or ask me for mine or send me a song about breadboxes or something of the sort. One kitchenware manufacturer even wanted to put a Steve Allen breadbox on the market.
I wonder why copacetic is used less than it used to be.
It's really a slang term, and slang tends to go out of fashion very quickly. In my youth everything was 'groovy, man'. If I were to use that in everyday speech now I'd sound like the old fart I am.
Build a man a fire and he's warm for a day. Set a man on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life.
