Earlier in the year I bought a hummingbird feeder with hopes of attracting the brightly coloured little birds outside our kitchen window. I fretted most of the summer as no tiny visitors arrived. Then Patti saw one at the feeder a few weeks ago. And just a few days later I observed three of the creatures fluttering around the feeder. All is now copacetic with the world.
The dictionary defines copacetic as very satisfactory. The word has an obscure origin.
The first known use of copacetic was in the early 1900s. A written occurrence of the word (as copasetic) was in A Man for the Ages (New York, 1919), a novel about the young Abraham Lincoln in rural Illinois, penned by writer Irving Bacheller (1859-1950). In the book the word is used by a character named Mrs. Lukins, noted for her idiosyncratic speech. Bacheller emphasizes that copacetic and coralapus are her peculiar property. "For a long time, the word coralapus had been a prized possession of Mrs. Lukins. 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 signaled an unusual depth of meaning." While coralapus passed into oblivion after the novel, it was only the beginning for copasetic. Copasetic next appeared in 1920, in the lyrics of a song, ‘At the New Jump Steady Ball,’ by the African American songwriters Tom Delaney (1889-1963) and Sidney Easton (1886-1971). "Copasetic was the password for all, at the new jump steady ball,” [a speakeasy]. Thus begins a long association of the word with African American speech. It was used by the tap dancer Bill "Bojangles" Robinson (1877-1949) in radio broadcasts during the 1930's. Bojangles popularized copacetic in his vaudeville acts, radio programs, and movies he made with Shirley Temple in the 1930s.
Lexicographer Charles Earle Funke wrote an article in 1953, American Speech, which launched the search outside English for the origin of copacetic. He cites a report by a correspondent from Milwaukee that the word comes from the Louisiana French word coupe-sètique. Unfortunately, outside of this claim, such a word is not known to exist in any variety of French. Until more evidence appears the origin of copacetic remains unclear apart from Bacheller’s novel.
There are some phrases that may be described as copacetic; everything is hunky-dory, wallowing in hog heaven, strolling along easy street, and living the life of Riley.
Hunky-dory is an American-coined adjective has been around since the 1860s. Its origin may come from the obsolete hunkey, meaning all right, which stems from the New York slang hunk, meaning in a safe position. It is presumed that this is derived from the Dutch root honk (home). The origin of dory is unknown.
The first print reference to hog heaven dates to 1945. But in 1871 the founders of the town that would become Moscow, Idaho, named their patch of land Hog Heaven. So, the concept must be older than the 1940s date. It's likely just another of those rhyming or repeat-letter phrases that we like so well (i.e., the bee's knees).
The expression easy street first appeared in print in 1902, in the novel It’s Up to You, by Hugh McHugh (really George Hobart). It was said of a very wealthy character that he “could walk up and down Easy Street.”
In 1880s America, “Reilly” had become a generic moniker for an Irish American male. In 1883, the vaudeville singer Pat Rooney popularized a song Is that Mr. Reilly, which included the chorus: Is that Mister Reilly, can anyone tell? Is that Mister Reilly that owns the hotel? Well, if that’s Mister Reilly they speak of so highly, Upon me soul, Riley, you’re doing quite well. This associated the fictional character of a “Mr. Reilly” with the idea of wealth and comfort. In 1918, after America’s entry into World War I, the expression living the life of Riley became popular in the military. Harry Pease, a popular British music hall entertainer, used it in his song My Name is Kelly in the verse: Faith and my name is Kelly, Michael Kelly, But I’m living the life of Reilly just the same. New generations were introduced to the phrase when actor William Bendix starred as Chester A. Riley in The Life of Riley, first in a radio series (1944-1951), then in a movie (1949), and finally in a TV series (1953-1958). In the ongoing comedy Bendix played Riley as a lovable lug with an enduring Brooklyn accent who worked on the assembly line at a California aircraft plant. Riley’s character was living a pretty good life. He was part of the generation that had grown up in the rough environment of the tenements of Brooklyn, had endured the Great Depression, and had survived World War II. And now Riley was living the American blue-collar dream, with a good-paying union job surrounded by loving friends and family.
When things are going well, everything is copacetic. Hope all is copacetic in your world.
John would like to know if anyone has a sincere interest in a relevant word that he could possibly research for an upcoming column. If so, please send your requests to [email protected]. Words will be selected according to relevance and research criteria. We cannot confirm that all words will be used.
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the position of this publication.
