13 January 2021
Copacetic is an Americanism that means fine or satisfactory. The origin is not known with certainty, but we have a pretty good guess.
As far anyone can tell, the copacetic, in its earliest incarnations spelled copasetic, pops up first in Irvin Bacheller’s 1919 novel A Man for the Ages, about Abraham Lincoln. The word appears three times in the novel, and all three instances are either spoken by or in reference to a Mrs. Lukins, a character in the book. The first of these is:
Now there's the kind of a man! Stout as a buffalo an' as to looks I'd call him, as ye might say, real copasetic." Mrs. Lukins expressed this opinion solemnly and with a slight cough. Its last word stood for nothing more than an indefinite depth of meaning.
About halfway through the book, there is this comment about her vocabulary:
There was one other word in her lexicon which was in the nature of a jewel to be used only on special occasions. It was the word "copasetic." The best society of Salem Hill understood perfectly that it signalized an unusual depth of meaning.
And toward the end there is this:
In the words of Mrs. Lukins “it is very copasetic,” and I begin to feel that I have made some progress in the study of Bim Kelso.
Despite many hours of searching by numerous researchers, no one has been able to find an earlier instance of the word. As a result, it seems likely that Bacheller coined the term for the character and Mrs. Lukins’s speech is akin to the malapropisms of Richard Brinsley Sheridan’s Mrs. Malaprop. If this is the case, copacetic may be Bacheller’s blending of the Latin copia (plenty) with ceterum (otherwise, in other respects).
Supporting this conjecture is the fact that Mrs. Lukins also uses the word coralapus, which like copacetic has not been antedated, but unlike copacetic does not seem to have a life outside this novel. Bacheller also coined Latinate words in his other writing.
The following year we see the word start to slip into slang usage. The Chicago Daily Tribune of 21 August 1920 reprinted an advertisement that had run in the Times of London a few weeks before as an example of a faux pas implying cannibalism:
VERY COPASETIC
(From the London Times.)
Good position—French lady, cooks herself, speaks English, beautiful climate; exchange of money favourable; good references. Déjardin 18, Porte Gayole, Boulogne.
The original ad in the Times did not have the headline copasetic. That headline is commentary on the ad by the Chicago paper.
Copacetic also appears in the 1920 song “At the New Jump Steady Ball” by Black songwriters Tom Delaney and Sidney Easton:
Copasetic was the password for one and all, At the New Jump Steady Ball!
The song was recorded in 1921 by Ethel Waters. Bill “Bojangles” Robinson was also known for having used the word, and it entered into American slang, especially that of Black speakers.
While the evidence that Bacheller actually coined the word is strong, it’s possible that he, wittingly or not, plucked a word that was already floating about the ether and used it in his novel. But it would be odd for a writer like Bacheller, who seemed attuned to slang and neologisms, to put a current slang term in the mouth of character who was supposed to have lived many decades before. But without more evidence, we cannot be sure which direction the word flows, from Bacheller into slang or vice versa.
Copacetic is also known for having a large number of explanations, all false, attached to its origin. It has been speculated that it comes from Chinook jargon, from Hebrew, from Louisiana French, from Italian, and with utmost absurdity from “the cop is on the settee.” None of these are plausible in the least.
Sources:
Bacheller, Irving. A Man for the Ages. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1919, 69, 287, 401. HathiTrust Digital Archive.
Delaney, Tom and Sidney Easton. “At the New Jump Steady Ball.” 1920. DigitalCommons@UMaine.
Goranson, Stephen. “Copasetic.” Language Log, 3 March 2017.
Green’s Dictionary of Slang, 2020, s.v. copacetic, adj.
“A Line o’ Type or Two.” Chicago Daily Tribune, 21 August 1920, 4. ProQuest Historical Newspapers.
Merriam-Webster.com, 2020, s.v. copacetic, adj.
“Nursing Homes.” Times (London), 22 July 1920, 4. Gale Primary Sources: The Times Digital Archive.
Oxford English Dictionary, second edition, 1989, s.v. copacetic, adj.