English

Alternative forms

• copasetic

Adjective

copacetic ‎(comparative more copacetic, superlative most copacetic)

1. (US) Fine, excellent, OK.
   • 1919, Irving Bacheller, A Man for the Ages: A Story of the Builders of Democracy, New York, N.Y.: Grosset & Dunlap, OCLC 648098, pages 69 and 287:

     ["]... 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. [...] 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".

   • 2014 July 5, Sam Borden, “For bellicose Brazil, payback carries heavy price: Loss of Neymar [International New York Times version: Brazil and referee share some blame for Neymar's injury: Spaniard's failure to curb early pattern of fouls is seen as major factor (7 July 2014, p. 13)]”, in The New York Times:

     Colombia and Brazil were supposed to be more copacetic.

Translations

References

1. ↑ “copacetic” in Dictionary.com Unabridged, v1.0.1, Lexico Publishing Group, 2006.
2. ↑ Mark Knowles, Tap Roots: The Early History of Tap Dancing (ISBN 0786412674), page 239
3. 1 2 this theory is mentioned by David L Gold, Studies in Etymology and Etiology, pages 60-61; he views it with skepticism
4. ↑ Donald L. Martin makes this suggestion, which can be found in e.g. Cassell's Dictionary of Slang (2005)
5. ↑ David L Gold writes of the suggestion that the English term derives from Chinook Jargon: "If that explanation is right, we expect the English word to have first been used somewhere from Alaska to Oregon (the area where Chinook Jargon was spoken). No evidence available to me, however, points in that direction. Might the Chinook Jargon word actually be a reflex of American English copacetic (in whatever spelling)?"
6. ↑ David L Gold, Studies in Etymology and Etiology, pages 60-61

• World Wide Words
• "Copacetic" in Michael Quinion, Ballyhoo, Buckaroo, and Spuds, 2004.