Copacetic

Use this forum to suggest Good Words for Professor Beard.
Palewriter
Lexiterian
Posts: 291
Joined: Sat Apr 09, 2005 11:59 pm

Copacetic

Postby Palewriter » Tue Aug 08, 2006 10:24 pm

Copacetic (adj)

Meaning: acceptable, satisfactory.

This interesting and useful word may derive from American English southern black speech, Latin, Yiddish, Italian, Louisiana French or Native American. (Online Etym. Dict.)

At least the experts are agreed on something. :-)


-- PW
"Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention to arrive safely in a pretty and well-preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming: Wow!!! What a ride!"

Garzo
Lexiterian
Posts: 137
Joined: Sat Feb 19, 2005 8:22 pm
Location: A place to cross the river Thames with your Oxen
Contact:

Postby Garzo » Wed Aug 09, 2006 9:20 am

It is most definitely a westpondian neologism that is never heard in the tired Old World. Neither has it anything to do with Coptic asceticism.

— Garzo.
"Poetry is that which gets lost in translation" — Robert Frost

sluggo
Grand Panjandrum
Posts: 1476
Joined: Wed Apr 12, 2006 1:58 pm
Location: Carolinia Agrestícia: The Forest Primeval

Re: Copacetic

Postby sluggo » Wed Aug 09, 2006 12:20 pm

Copacetic (adj)

Meaning: acceptable, satisfactory.

This interesting and useful word may derive from American English southern black speech, Latin, Yiddish, Italian, Louisiana French or Native American. (Online Etym. Dict.)

At least the experts are agreed on something. :-)


-- PW
I have only seen it spelt copasetic fwiw. How to standardize? If Tom Waits uses it and then publishes the song, is it official?

On the other hand, this listed under under the C spelling(excerpt):
It’s possible that this word has created more column inches of speculation in the USA than any other apart from OK. It’s rare to the point of invisibility outside North America...

The name of Bill “Bojangles” Robinson, a famous black tap-dancer, singer and actor of the period round the turn of the twentieth century is commonly linked to this belief about its origin. Indeed, he claimed to have invented it as a shoeshine boy in Richmond...

A more frequent explanation is that it derives from one of two Hebrew expressions, hakol b’seder, “all is in order”, or kol b’tzedek, “all with justice”, which it is suggested were introduced into the USA by Yiddish-speaking Jewish immigrants. Yet other accounts say it derives from a Chinook word copasenee, “everything is satisfactory”, once used on the waterways of Washington State, or from the French coupersetique, from couper, “to strike”, or from the French phrase copain(s) c’est épatant! (“buddy(s), that’s great!”), or, in a hugely strained derivation, from the cop is on the settee, supposedly a hoodlum term used to describe a policeman who was not actively watching out for crime, and so one who was OK.
"Everything is satisfactual..."
Stop! Murder us not, tonsured rumpots! Knife no one, fink!

User avatar
gailr
Grand Panjandrum
Posts: 1945
Joined: Tue Mar 15, 2005 11:40 am
Contact:

Postby gailr » Wed Aug 09, 2006 12:41 pm

This was one of my dad's favorite words. (But then, so was irregardless, she noted with a smile.)

-gailr

sluggo
Grand Panjandrum
Posts: 1476
Joined: Wed Apr 12, 2006 1:58 pm
Location: Carolinia Agrestícia: The Forest Primeval

Postby sluggo » Wed Aug 09, 2006 1:00 pm

This was one of my dad's favorite words. (But then, so was irregardless, she noted with a smile.)

-gailr
Hey! Watch your language!
Or not.... :lol:
Stop! Murder us not, tonsured rumpots! Knife no one, fink!


Return to “Good Word Suggestions”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: Bing [Bot] and 32 guests