copasetic and coralapus: a suggestion

[Stephen Goranson]

Quoting "Douglas G. Wilson" <douglas at NB.NET>:

>> As is well known, the origin of "copasetic" is unknown; or, at
>> least, there is
>> no consensus. Many agree that the earliest so-far found published
>> use is from
>> 1919. This note is a suggestion that, as far as I know, has not been made
>> before; please correct me if I'm mistaken about that. Also, this suggestion
>> could probably be falsified if anyone presents a securely-dated use, rather
>> than unconfirmed claimed memories (as e.g. in American Speech 1953
>> 230-1 and The
>> Believer Oct. 2005 by D. Mamet)--of "copasetic" before 1919. Put simply, I
>> suggest that Irving Bacheller made it up.
>
>> In his book A Man for the Ages: A Story of the Builders of Democracy, about
>> Abraham Lincoln, Bacheller gives this word to Mrs. Lukins, a person who does
>> not seem to fit many ethnic proposed associations with the word.
>> Some thought
>> Lincoln unattractive. But Mrs. Lukins admires Lincoln: "'Stout as a
>> buffalo an'
>> as to looks, as ye might say, real copasetic.' Mrs. Lukins expressed this
>> opinion solemly and with a slight cough. Its last word stood for
>> nothing more
>> than an infinite depth of meaning." (p. 69) Bacheller explains the new word.
>>
>> Page 287: "There was one other word in her lexicon [not ours yet]
>> 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
>> signified an unusual depth of meaning."
>>
>> Page 401: "In the words of Mrs. Lukins 'it is very copasetic.'"
>
> I see HDAS quotes this book (apparently following OED) using the
> spelling "copesetic". Error? Or was there another edition with the
> different spelling?

In the Duke library copy (NY: Grosset & Dunlap, copyright 1919) it is
consistently spelled "copasetic" not "copesetic."

>
> Is it clear what "copasetic" means in the Bacheller book? Granted it
> is something positive, but what?

If you're interested, I could type out a little more context. Page 401, e.g.
describes a good home with a fine meal by "famous cook" Mrs. Lukins.

>
>> The word we are introduced to reportedly has "depth." Mrs. Lukins
>> has another
>> another special, prized word with depth: "coralapus" (pages 212 and
>> 286). The
>> latter is quite probably a newly-made word. Perhaps "copasetic" was too, the
>> difference being that only one of them--used favorably of Abraham
>> Lincoln--caught on,
>
> Seems a reasonable conjecture. Hard to prove if true, but easy to
> disprove if false.

With more searching and bigger databases, I suggest the conjecure becomes more
probable. And many searches with many spellings have already been
made. By the
way, the American Speech and The Believer proposals (if Mamet is being
serious) contradict one another.

>
> One may still ask whether the made-up words were meant to have any
> particular sense or origin. One might casually speculate, say,
> "coral" + "lapis" [from a jewelry ad or something] = "corallapis",
> etc. Did the character who had these favorite words have other odd
> words or malapropisms? (I have only the despicable snippets.)
> -- Doug Wilson

Along those lines, I note that a correspondent on word-detective.com wrote "I
have wondered if it might have been derived from the Latin “copia” (plenty),
thus signifying that things were exceedingly good." The response there included
that "'Copasetic'...appeared pretty much out of thin air, although we can
presume it was in oral use for at least a few years before someone wrote it
down." I suggest that we need not presume that. (Another presumption on a good
web site asks "Nine yards of what?"--that presumes linear measure yards, rather
than nine yards of things, items.)

Page 212:
"A little whitewash wouldn't hurt it any," said Abe. "I'll gladly give him my
title of Captain if I could unhitch it someway."

"Colonel is a more grander name," she insisted. "I call it plum coralapus."

She [Mrs. Lukins] had thus expressed her notion of the limit of human grandeur."

Page 286:
[Mrs. Lukins:] "He's a good man. there don't nobody know how deep an' kind o'
coralapus like he is.

SShe now paused to count stickes. For a long time the word "coralapus' had been
a prized possession of Mrs. Lukins. Like her feathered bonnet, it was used only
on special occasions by way of putting her best foot forward. It was indeed a
family ornament of the same general character as her husband's title. Just how
she came by it nobody could tell, but of its general significance, as it fell
from her lips, there could be no doubt whatever in any but the most obtuse
intellect. For her it had a large and noble, although a rather indefinite
meaning, entirely favorable to the person or the object to which it was
applied. [/page 287] There was one other word in her lexicon [...as above,
copasetic]."

Apparently Bacheller's book on Lincoln was popular, a best seller.

Stephen Goranson
http://www.duke.edu

The above case is somewhat parallel to the character High Jack in O. Henry's
story, the abduction in which, I suggest, led to the word "highjack, hijack."

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