Re: kol b'seder= copacetic

From: John Woodgate (jmw_at_jmwa.demon.contraspam.yuk)
Date: 10/06/04 

Date: Wed, 6 Oct 2004 22:48:54 +0100

I read in sci.lang.translation that Anthony J. Bryant
<ajbryant_NOSPAM@indiana.edu> wrote (in <ck1nqg$j4f$1@hood.uits.indiana.
edu>) about 'kol b'seder= copacetic', on Wed, 6 Oct 2004:
>John Woodgate wrote:
>
>> These coinings sometimes arise out of nothing at all, a child's
>> mispronunciation picked up and copied by parents, or a chance
>> juxtaposition of unrelated words. Considering that the word is from
>> Black English, it could be a corruption of a word in an African or Carib
>> language.
>
>Possible. From the OED:
>
> 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 *** Heaven 286 Kopasetee, an
>approbatory epithet somewhat stronger than all right. 1933 N. ERSINE
>Underworld & Prison Slang 29 Copissettic, all right, okay. 1934 WEBSTER,
>Copacetic, capital; snappy; prime. 1934 J. O'HARA Appt. Samarra (1935)
>i. 24 You had to be a good judge of what a man was like, and the English
>was copacetic. 1937 Amer. Speech XII. 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 Ibid. 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.

Kopasettee sounds more like Native American. 

-- 
Regards, John Woodgate, OOO - Own Opinions Only. 
The good news is that nothing is compulsory.
The bad news is that everything is prohibited.
http://www.jmwa.demon.co.uk Also see http://www.isce.org.uk
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