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..."
